The consulting companies Trendence and EY published the results of their surveys of 20,000 school students and 2,000 university students respectively on the topic "preferred employer." The findings coincide in many points. Thus the public service experiences a renaissance, it leads both rankings. Among the school students, the police and Bundeswehr occupy the first and third place, Adidas is in-between. University students prefer the public service sector, cultural institutions, and science organizations. Individual companies were not surveyed. Another commonality. The auto industry suffered heavy losses in terms of popularity. It had to vacate the top position among the school students already last year. Currently it is falling even further behind the public service sector. For the university students, the car industry is only in eighth place. While two years ago, 22% still wanted to work for a carmaker, now it is just 8%.

Of the other industries, the trade and consumer goods industries took third and fourth place among the school students, followed by logistics and tourism. Among the university students, the "other industry" came in fourth place with stable values. There was a noticeable shift with regard to engineers. The IT and software industry has grown massively in popularity and is now the undisputed leader with 53%.

Those companies are dependent on smart minds and should think about how they can continue to be attractive to young professionals, commented Oliver Simon of EY on the results. "Money alone is not enough."