As older employees retire and young candidates move to other sectors and roles, Germany has been facing a shortage of skilled workers so severe that the country is trying to alleviate the problem by seeking help beyond its borders—about 6,000 km away, in India.
The initiative began when Handrik von Ungern-Sternberg received an email from an Indian employment agency, Magic Billion, in February 2021, offering candidates from India for vocational training. “We have many young, motivated people looking for vocational training, and we’re wondering if you’re interested,” the email read.
The email arrived at just the right time. At the time, Von Ungern-Sternberg was working for the Freiburg Chamber of Skilled Crafts in southwest Germany, a trade association that represents skilled workers—from bricklayers and carpenters to butchers and bakers—as well as the companies that employ them.
“We had a lot of desperate employers who couldn’t find anyone to work for them,” Von Ungern-Sternberg told the BBC. “So we decided to give it a try.”
He contacted the head of the local butchers’ guild because the industry was facing a decline in the workforce nationwide, along with many other traditional German trades. While there were 19,000 small family-run businesses in 2002, fewer than 11,000 remained by 2021.
Joachim Lederer explained how difficult it has been to recruit young people, since the butchery trade involves “hard work” and, for the past 25 years or so, young people have been pursuing other career paths.
The partnership has grown from a pilot program involving 13 apprentices who arrived in 2022 into a major economic initiative. Over the years, Von Ungern-Sternberg, who founded his own employment agency, India Works, has helped bring 200 young Indians to work in butcher shops in Germany.
The influx of workers into the country is more of a necessity than a luxury at the moment, as Germany is facing a demographic crisis. As the baby boomers approach retirement, the lack of a younger generation is becoming increasingly apparent, due to a low birth rate.
However, India, on the other hand, has a labor surplus. “India is a country with 600 million people under the age of 25,” Aditi Banerjee of Magic Billion the outlet. “Only 12 million enter the workforce each year. So there’s a huge labor surplus.”
According to a 2024 study by the Bertelsmann Foundation think tank, the economy needs to attract 288,000 foreign workers annually; otherwise, its workforce could decline by 10% by 2040.
In 2026, India Works expects to bring 775 young Indians to Germany for apprenticeships. This time, the group will include road builders, mechanics, stonemasons, bakers, and others.
The movement of skilled workers from India to Germany has been easier ever since the two countries signed the Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement in 2022. In 2024, Germany announced that it would increase the annual quota for skilled worker visas for Indian nationals from 20,000 to 90,000.
According to a January 2026 study by the German-language business newspaper Handelsblatt, Indian workers in Germany earned about 29% more than their German counterparts in 2024. Indian employees recorded a median gross monthly income of €5,393 (Rs 568,900), compared with €4,177 (Rs 434,000) for German workers. This is one of the reasons why workers are drawn to moving to the country, along with the high unemployment rate back home.
“Wages are high here,” said Ishu Gariya, a 20-year-old high school graduate working as a baker’s apprentice. “So I’ll be able to help my family [back home] financially.”
For Ajay Kumar Chandapaka, a 25-year-old from Hyderabad with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, it would be “difficult” for him to find a job in India, so he thought that an apprenticeship would be a “better option” for him.
The two-way street of economic survival and personal opportunities appears to be the new blueprint for Germany’s prosperous future. While Indians benefit from job opportunities and high wages, Germans are able to keep their struggling sectors afloat. “When I started out 35 years ago, there were eight shops like mine within a 10-kilometer radius,” said Lederer. “Now I’m the only one left. I wouldn’t be in business today without India.”
