Shortage of skilled workers will significantly slow down infrastructure projects

With the special fund, the federal and state governments actually have enough money to get the infrastructure back on track. Alone: There are too few specialists who could do the work.

Updated: Oct 20, 2026, 7:09 AM 3 min read deublitz newsroom

Construction site on the A8: Question marks in the Infrastructure, Energy Transition and Digitalization segments

The shortage of skilled workers could become a problem in the use of the 500 billion euros from the state special pot for the modernization of the infrastructure. Money alone does not create any capacity for implementation, according to a study by the Institute of German Economy (IW), which is to be published on Monday.

“Whether the projects succeed also depends crucially on the availability of enough qualified specialists to plan, build and operate them.” And here there are question marks, especially for professions in the segments infrastructure, energy transition and digitalization. “If you count overlapping professions only once, between July 2025 and June 2026 an average of 148,047 specialists for the investment agenda were missing.” 44 percent of the skill gap across all professions thus belong to these three occupational groups.

According to the Cologne researchers, the bottlenecks are greatest in technical activities for the physical implementation of infrastructure projects. »These include construction electrical engineering, sanitary, heating and air conditioning technology, electrical operating technology and mechanical engineering and operating technology.« The majority of skilled workers with completed vocational training were missing. “The funds of the special fund are likely to trigger a further increase in the demand for these professions, while the supply of labour grows insufficiently without vigorous countermeasures.”

The German government had recently, as well as leading economists and the International Monetary Fund, significantly raised their forecasts for the German economy. In addition to good export figures, this is mainly due to state investments in infrastructure and defence. Gross domestic product is expected to rise by 1.3 percent this year, then by 1.1 percent in 2027. In 2028, it should then be slower by only 0.6 percent uphill.

According to IW, the shortage of skilled workers, which is primarily due to demographic development and can only be partially compensated by immigration, is one of the biggest structural problems in Germany. »Unfilled jobs mean initially lost value in the short term, but also less innovative power and economic growth in the long term.« In 2025, 54,000 apprenticeships remained unfilled across all professions and almost 40,000 applicants were left without care.

The IW study was commissioned by a foundation of the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock. He wants to provide 15 million euros over the next five years to alleviate the problem of skilled workers in German crafts. 5000 people should benefit from this. Blackrock also referred to earlier surveys, according to which the production potential of Germany 2024 without a shortage of skilled workers could have been about 49 billion euros or 1.1 percent higher.