The Joblift job platform analyzed around 15 million online job ads over the last 24 months. The results show that the job offers relating to autonomous vehicles increased by 120% in a year and those relating to air taxis by up to 710% – although admittedly from a low starting point. In total there have been 29,500 job ads in the automobile industry in the last two years and 250 in the aerospace sector. The shortage of qualified personnel is becoming apparent in driverless vehicles in particular: on average it takes 47 days to fill a vacancy in this area; across sectors, this figure is just 35 days throughout Germany. By contrast, Lilium and Volocopter , regarded as German pioneers when it comes to driverless air taxis, were able to fill their advertised vacancies after just 20 days.

There were also regional differences: two-thirds of the jobs in the autonomous vehicle sector advertised online were in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. The companies with the largest demand were the suppliers: Bosch Mobility Solutions advertised 4,000 job offers, ASAP Holding 1,200. Volocopter and Lilium, both based in Bavaria, advertised about half of all jobs in the air taxi sector.

A tailwind could keep industries in Europe going. The EU Parliament has passed a resolution calling for the European Commission to respond more quickly to developments in networked and autonomous mobility. There is an urgent need, among other things, for adequate funding to support the sector and for appropriate safety and liability regulations.