The Engineer Monitor is prepared quarterly for the VDI by the German Economic Institute (IW) . According to the latest edition, there are some 1.21 million employees liable for social security contributions in engineering and IT professions throughout Germany – more than ever before. In Q1 2019, there were an average of 126,370 vacancies each month. Compared to the previous year, demand was up again by 1.2%. However, there was an average of just 30,557 people per month looking for a job in an engineering profession. Consequently, the number of registered unemployed fell by 5.7% within one year.

These trends are also reflected in the bottleneck ratio, which stood at 414 vacancies per 100 unemployed persons in Q1 2019, nationwide and across all engineering profession categories. With 564 vacancies per 100 unemployed persons, civil engineers continued to be in the highest demand nationwide, followed by computer scientists (557 vacancies per 100 unemployed persons), energy and electrical engineers (510/100), and mechanical and automotive engineers (399/100). According to the Engineer Monitor, demand is not expected to fall in the coming quarters either.