Faced
with
a
tight
labour
market
and
a
shortage
of
workers
with
key
software
engineering
skills,
some
German
companies
are
looking
at
thousands
of
layoffs
in
Silicon
Valley
as
an
opportunity
to
recruit
top
talent.
The
US
West
Coast
has
always
been
the
main
destination
for
ambitious
software
engineers
looking
to
work
in
the
best-paid,
most
elite
corner
of
their
profession,
but
the
mass
redundancies
have
created
a
pool
of
jobseekers
that
Germany
is
eager
to
tap.
“They
fire,
we
hire,”
said
Rainer
Zugehoer,
chief
people
officer
at
Cariad,
the
software
subsidiary
of
automaker
Volkswagen.
“We
have
several
hundred
open
positions
in
the
US,
in
Europe
and
in
China.”
Spooked
by
inflation
and
the
prospect
of
recession,
Google
parent
Alphabet,
Microsoft
and
Facebook
owner
Meta
have
announced
a
combined
almost
40,000
job
cuts.
While
Germany
is
also
teetering
on
the
edge
of
recession,
its
companies
have
grown
more
slowly
in
recent
years
and,
in
a
country
notorious
for
still
handling
business
by
fax,
there
are
huge
technology
leaps
to
be
made.
Germany,
with
one
of
the
world’s
oldest
populations,
has
gaping
holes
in
its
labour
force:
according
to
IT
industry
group
Bitkom,
137,000
IT
jobs
are
unfilled.
The
government
is
simplifying
immigration
rules
and
dangling
the
prospect
of
easily-acquired
citizenship
to
tempt
skilled
would-be
immigrants,
and
regional
authorities
are
pressing
ahead.
“I
would
like
to
cordially
invite
you
to
move
to
Bavaria,”
wrote
Judith
Gerlach,
digitalisation
minister
in
Germany’s
wealthiest
region
on
LinkedIn
in
a
post
addressed
to
the
recently
laid
off.
Especially
with
the
euro
at
dollar
parity,
few
European
companies
pay
rates
that
compete
with
the
hundreds
of
thousands
of
dollars
on
offer
at
California’s
most
successful
companies,
but
some
hope
cheaper
healthcare
and
lower
costs
compared
to
hotspots
like
San
Francisco
can
help.
“And
did
I
mention
Oktoberfest?”
Gerlach
added,
adding
Munich’s
famed
beer
festival
to
the
strong
labour
protections
that
might
prove
attractive
to
the
newly
jobless.
Some
are
sceptical,
with
Bitkom’s
Bernhard
Rohleder
noting
that
Germany
is
competing
not
just
with
other
countries
for
the
most
talented,
but
with
potential
recruits’
home
countries
too.
Germany’s
penchant
for
red
tape
could
be
another
challenge:
companies
are
already
reporting
months-long
delays
in
securing
appointments
for
their
new
hires
to
get
work
permits.
“Bureaucracy
in
Germany
is
utterly
crippling
for
most
highly-qualified
workers
when
they
first
encounter
it,
especially
if
they
don’t
speak
German,”
said
Diana
Stoleru
of
Berlin
startup
Lendis.
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