Selected work areas in overview
Home care becomes more important
Home care becomes more important
Three out of ten job offers in the healthcare and nursing work area go to healthcare and nursing professionals. Among the medical nursing professions, only nursing staff in geriatric care saw gains, allowing them to improve somewhat again in the ranking of all professions (35th place). Home care workers and domestic care assistants are in above-average demand, which earned them a place among the top 10 professions for the first time. Given demographic change and limited inpatient care places, the need for care and support within one's own home will continue to rise. A good one in ten job offers is aimed at physician's assistants. For this profession, the shortage of skilled personnel has almost completely disappeared.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, the need for nursing staff will increase by a third by 2049. A positive signal is that in 2025 there were 8 % more trainees for the nursing specialist profession than in 2024.
Despite AI: high demand in clerical work
Despite AI debates and possible job cuts in office professions, the reality (still) looks different: employers have many positions to fill in clerical work. Only in two years since 2008 they have been even more strongly represented in the sample. Most frequently, job offers were advertised for clerks without naming a specific specialization. Their twelfth place in the overall ranking demonstrates the high demand, even though the profession has lost places compared to the previous year (2025: 6th place). As a result, the gap to the HR department professionals and the freight and logistics service agents has narrowed considerably. They are currently also among the top 25 professions (20th and 23rd place respectively).
Freight forwarding clerks organize and monitor freight transport at forwarding companies or businesses. Demand for their expertise is high – even though the logistics industry usually reacts sensitively to economic fluctuations.
Engineers: the trough has been passed
On the engineering job market, the situation has improved. Architects and civil engineers just missed a return to the top 10 professions and are in eleventh place in the overall ranking (2025: 18). At the same time, demand in the field of building and supply engineering has risen.
One in five offers in the work area is aimed at job seekers in electrical engineering. In the overall ranking, electrical engineers have moved up to 19th place, after falling further back in the previous year than ever before since 2008 (33rd place). Even though some of their traditional employer industries are struggling, new fields of activity have emerged, for example in the defense industry. Demand in the mechanical and vehicle engineering discipline remains under pressure. Its share of the engineering professions is at an all-time low; only a good one in ten job offers is aimed at mechanical and vehicle construction engineers. Industrial engineers are currently more in demand and have made up many places in the overall ranking (42nd place).
Brightening in IT
The IT professions have overcome their low from last year. The Federal Employment Agency (BA) did report rising unemployment and a decline in job openings for IT. Nevertheless, demand for IT specialists remains at a high level. Bottlenecks exist above all among software developers. The job market confirms this: with few exceptions, most IT professions have grown slightly. The most sought-after are specialists in software development. They share eleventh place with architects. Within the IT professions, not quite three out of ten offers are advertised for them. Specialists in system administration have lost shares within the IT professions, but made up five places in the overall ranking (16th place). Almost one in ten IT positions goes to SAP developers. For data analysis experts, the share has remained the same; they are in seventh place among the IT professions.
Despite the crisis: metalworking professions growing
Metalworking professions have had a higher share of the overall sample than they do now only once since data collection began. Slightly more than one in twenty positions is to be filled in this work area (5.2 %). Employers are urgently looking for welders; the profession is positioned further forward than ever before since data collection began (13th place). No wonder, since welder is one of the professions in which the shortage of skilled workers has increased in 2025. Their skills are needed in the trades and in industry. Close behind follow system engineers for sanitary, heating and air conditioning, even though they have lost weight within the metalworking professions. Here, the shortage of skilled workers has increased especially at the specialist level.
The employers' association Gesamtmetall expects that up to 150,000 jobs could be lost in the metal and electrical industry in 2026. Nevertheless, specialists seem to be harder to find in some areas than last year.
