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Berlin - Germany plans soon to adopt measures aimed at relieving a shortage of qualified workers in certain sectors by attracting foreign candidates, an official spokesperson said Monday.
Although the ministry spokesperson did not provide details, the confirmation came after a newspaper said Saturday that authorities were mulling an "index of worker needs."
The report said officials could poll 7 000 companies each month to determine what kinds of skills were needed in the coming six months and adapt the granting of work vias accordingly.
A spokesperson for the Labour Ministry "neither denied, nor confirmed" the report but acknowledged that the search for a "control system to identify needs" was "the reflective framework within which we are proceeding."
Government spokesperson Thomas Steg said the subject had been discussed intensively, in particular between the social democrat labour minister and his conservative counterpart at the interior ministry.
A proposition was expected to be presented to the full cabinet on either July 16 or 23, Steg added.
Certain sectors of the biggest European economy, notably high-tech firms, are handicapped by a serious shortage of engineers, programmers and qualified technicians.
The national engineering federation said last month that around 100 000 engineering posts were vacant throughout Germany.
Measures taken by the government to date have been judged too restrictive by the business sector and have not noticeably improved the situation.
All the same, the government was expected to extend the period before which non-skilled workers from Eastern Europe could come freely to Germany, a measure that German businesses would like to see abandoned.
When the European Union extended eastwards in 2004, Germany obtained permission to maintain its ban on foreign workers until 2009, and possibly two years longer.
Labour Minister Olaf Scholz has "a certain sympathy for an extension," owing to substantial unemployment levels, his spokesman said Monday, but "with an exception for skilled workers."
- AFP