While you were in school, the job market changed, says The world to its readers fresh from the benches of the university. But don’t worry, “the golden age seems to have come for graduates”. On the one hand, Germany is experiencing a significant shortage of skilled workers. According to the specialized KfW-Ifo barometer, 43% of companies complain that their activity is directly suffering from a lack of staff, compared to 29% before the pandemic. On the other hand, for the first time in fourteen years, the number of students had not increased significantly in 2020-2021 while that of academics retiring is increasing. An academic career is therefore more than ever possible. But if you want to work in the private sector, you are certainly concerned about the sectors that recruit the most and pay the best, especially since the cost of living has increased considerably in the big cities and that, “in some professions, the evolution of wages is lagging behind the increase in the cost of living”.
The daily recalls that “Salary should never be the decisive criterion or even the only criterion for choosing a career. However, today no graduate can afford not to know their ‘market value’ because in practice it often proves difficult to reach a significantly higher level from a low income level.” Be aware that in Germany the median salary for a holder of a license within two years of entering the labor market is 45,000 euros gross per year, but the disparities between sectors are significant.
The sectors that have the wind in their sails
Certain sectors such as tourism, leisure and retail have particularly suffered from the health crisis due to confinements, gauges and competition from online commerce. The lowest salaries are found in the tourism sectors, as well as in advertising and public relations, while they are very high in the automotive, banking and chemical sectors. “In the automotive sector, starting salaries of more than 60,000 euros are not uncommon, even for young professionals”, highlighted The world. In finance too, it is not uncommon to start at 62,000 euros per year, even if the median salary is lower than in the automotive industry. Other lucrative sectors include mechanical engineering (median: 51,500 euros), management consulting (median: 49,800 euros) and insurance (median: 49,500 euros), as well as electrical engineering (median: €49,200). The pharmaceutical industry, which has benefited from the pandemic, also stands out for high entry-level salaries.
In economically dynamic sectors such as IT, companies attract talent with high entry salaries. “A quarter of academics earn more than 52,000 euros a year at the start of their career”, explains Korbinian Nagel, economist at Content.de. And statistically, the most educated earn on average 10% more than those with only an undergraduate degree.