As baby boomers retire, German businesses turn to robots
(This Oct. 27 story has been corrected to change the name of the Daimler (OTC:MBGAF) Truck works council head to Matthias Brecht, not Matthias Krust, in paragraph 23)
By Maria Martinez
BERLIN (Reuters) — At machine parts producer S&D Blech, the head of the grinding unit is retiring. With Germany's acute labour shortage leaving few candidates to take on the skilled but dirty and hazardous manual work, the company will replace him with a robot.
Other small and medium-sized companies are also turning to automation as the gradual exit from the workplace of Germany's post-war «baby boom» generation tightens the labour squeeze.
Some 1.7 million German jobs were unfilled in June, official data shows. The German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) says more than half of companies are struggling to fill vacancies, at an estimated cost to growth in Europe's largest economy of nearly 100 billion euros ($109 billion) per year.
Managing director Henning Schloeder cited that trend to explain S&D Blech's push over several years towards automation and digitalisation, saying: «This will further aggravate the already difficult skilled labour situation, particularly in production and crafts.»
Finding a new head of the grinding unit was hard «not only because of all the experience he has, but also because it's a back-breaking job that no one wants to do any more», Schloeder told Reuters.
Machine-grinding involves high heat and continuous noise, while the sparks it throws out can be dangerous.
More women working and a surge in immigration have helped compensate for demographic changes in recent years in Germany.
But with baby boomers retiring and a new cohort — much smaller, due to low birth rates — joining the labour force, the
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