Can Germany’s auto business staff pivot to protection jobs? – DW – 03/26/2025 | EUROtoday

The resolution by the German parliament to massively improve protection spending over the approaching years may completely reshuffle Germany’s industrial panorama.

It may see jobs transferring, for instance, from the nation’s struggling automakers to the arms business.

While Germany’s flagship industrial corporations like Volkswagen are shedding jobs amid falling gross sales, German producers of tanks like Rheinmetall and cruise missiles like Diehl, are desperately looking for staff.

How will the European spending growth affect jobs?

A examine by consulting agency EY and German lender DekaBank on the “Economic Effects of European Defense Investments,” calculated that Europe’s NATO members will make investments an estimated €72 billion ($78 billion) yearly in bolstering their navy defenses.

This will create or safe 680,000 jobs in Europe, the examine discovered.

Asurvey of high resolution makers in Europe’s protection business by US consulting agency Kearney’s Germany workplace equally concludes that jobs within the sector will growth throughout Europe.

It notes, nonetheless, that the precise variety of expert staff wanted depends upon how a lot European NATO states actually improve their protection spending.

If they allocate 2% of their GDP to protection, as NATO tips counsel, about 160,000 expert staff can be wanted by 2030 in Europe, the Kearney evaluation finds.

“With a moderate increase (2.5% of GDP), around 460,000 positions could remain unfilled, and with a significant increase (3%), that number could reach up to 760,000 [in Europe],” the authors write, noting that specialists in synthetic intelligence and massive knowledge have been notably in demand.

Who will profit from extra European protection spending?

Europe’s protection base is generally centered on France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

Germany, the second largest arms exporting nation in Europe, is anticipated to be one of many largest beneficiaries of European rearmament.

The nation’s protection sector presently employs round 60,000 individuals, with an extra 90,000 individuals working for suppliers to the business, in keeping with Klaus-Heiner Röhl, an business knowledgeable on the German Economic Institute in Cologne.

Where will staff come from?

Due to the anticipated surge in demand for navy {hardware} resembling artillery items, radar expertise or armored automobiles, producers will not be solely trying to find new workers but in addition for manufacturing websites to deal with the flood of recent orders.

So, it will make sense to recruit from German industries which might be presently struggling and maybe shedding jobs.

Oliver Dörre, the CEO of Hensoldt, a number one European protection firm headquartered in Germany, brazenly admitted in an interview with Reuters information company that Hensoldt would “benefit from the difficulties in the automotive sector.”

Hensoldt focuses on sensor applied sciences for defense and surveillance missions. Their high-performance radars, for instance, are being utilized in Ukraine’s air protection, and mentioned to be even able to detecting stealth bombers just like the US-built F-35.

In the Reuters interview, Dörre mentioned talks have been already underway with German auto suppliers Continental and Bosch about hiring redundant workers.

Defense agency KNDS introduced in February that it’s planning to take over a plant in east Germany from practice producer Alstom, which was set to shut in 2026.

KNDS needs to retain about half of the 700 Alstom workforce there and has mentioned it will produce elements and modules for its Leopard 2 battle tanks, in addition to for its Puma and Boxer armored automobiles on the practice manufacturing facility, with manufacturing scheduled to start as early as 2025.

German arms maker Rheinmetall can be counting on profession changersfrom the automobile business. German public broadcaster NDR reported just lately that at the very least one employee, who beforehand manufactured specialty elements for the oil business, now produces gun barrels for Rheinmetall tanks at a manufacturing facility in northern Germany.

What works — and what does not?

Switching from a civilian to a protection job is not all the time straightforward, although, mentioned Eva Brückner, Managing Director of the German recruitment marketing consultant Heinrich & Coll.

“A transition is only possible in certain positions and specialized roles,” mentioned Brückner, who focuses on recruitment for the safety and protection business.

A professional meeting line employee at Volkswagen may, after all, do the identical job at a protection firm, she mentioned. Similarly, a growth engineer can transition into the protection sector after some retraining.

For different roles, nonetheless, the transition is not as easy, particularly in gross sales or procurement, Brückner mentioned.

“A buyer from the automotive industry, who is used to having suppliers jump at their command, can’t easily be placed in the defense sector,” she advised DW.

Security screenings and US alternatives

The CEO of the German Security and Defense Industry Association, Hans Christoph Atzpodien, factors to a different problem dealing with protection corporations when hiring recent personnel: safety clearances.

“The current processing times for these approvals are far too long to enable a rapid transition of personnel,” he advised DW.

On high of this, Germany’s Security Clearance Check Act, which amongst different issues governs clearances for workers working in protection industries, refers to a listing of nations (referred to as the List of states in German) deemed a big danger to nationwide safety, resembling Afghanistan, China, Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Russia.

Potential workers who’re nationals of a rustic on that listing, and even Germans who’ve had an prolonged keep in one of many listed nations, might have difficulties gaining the safety clearance.

Many consultants agree that Europe’s rearmament drive could possibly be slowed down by the present lack of expert workers on the continent.

What may assist although, says Eva Brückner, are the insurance policies of US President Donald Trump.

“Because Trump has announced cuts in funding for research institutes and universities, new opportunities are opening up for Europe,” she mentioned, noting that perceptions concerning the US and its well-funded elite universities may change among the many world’s high abilities.

“If funding is reduced, Europe has the chance to position itself as the innovation hub — and recruit these people.”

Brückner mentioned she has already obtained inquiries from US-based professionals whose Green Cards will not be being renewed or who not really feel valued of their American jobs. Many are questioning whether or not they need to align with the brand new US political and geopolitical course.

“This is a huge opportunity, and it should be seized. Europe could attract some of the brightest minds,” she added.

‘Under-the-radar’ professionals and digital consultants in demand

Brückner believes the protection sector must rethink its recruitment technique shortly and likewise convey in additional girls in management roles in an business nonetheless dominated by former navy officers, who’re principally male.

The Kearney evaluation factors out that the fast tempo of digitization within the protection business is altering job profiles and necessities.

IT specialists and synthetic intelligence (AI) consultants for networking trendy weapons techniques and utilizing massive knowledge for situational evaluation are in excessive demand however in brief provide, the evaluation finds.

“The defense industry has traditionally been analog. Now it lacks the digital talent it needs,” writes Nils Kuhlwein, a co-author of the Kearney evaluation.

Higher salaries than in civilian corporations are wanted to draw the urgently wanted specialists, he notes, including that “firms will have to raise their pay scales even further.”

This article was initially written in German.