Back in January we wrote Germany’s Demographic Problem and reported on how Germany was attempting to attract 400,000 workers so how’s it going?
Bloomberg reports that Germany’s problems continue to grow:
The lack of qualified labor — brought on by an aging population and exacerbated by the pandemic — is starving manufacturers from Airbus SE to BMW AG to BASF SE of the staff they need to keep pace with demand. Recent surveys found a record 50% of firms are cutting output due to staffing problems, and it’s costing the economy as much as $85 billion per year.
Bloomberg.com
The article goes on to state that almost all manufacturing is suffering from labor shortages and Germany now finds itself competing with Denmark for workers. I’m certain it won’t stop there. Italy is notorious for having the worst aging demographics in all of Europe so it’s only a matter of time before European countries attempt to poach each others workers not unlike what has been happening between states in the United States with teachers.
Ironically, most countries in Europe have been moving toward isolationism and anti-immigrant stances at a time when the only viable option to save these economies is to import more labor. Unfortunately, the skilled and knowledge worker will be in very high demand moving forward so we expect wages to continue to climb.
We expect manufacturing to migrate from place like China to India, parts of Africa and Latin America where there are plenty of younger people that can be trained and educated to produce the goods and services that will be needed around the world.
We’re continue to research investments in these regions and we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime stay tuned and stay solvent…