The companies’ positive business situation and the high public sector demand led to record figures at the end of 2018: a monthly average of 126,060 vacancies for engineers and computer scientists was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018 - an increase of 3.8% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. At the same time, the number of unemployed in both sectors hit a new low of 29,465 persons per month. This is the conclusion reached in the current Ingenieurmonitor (engineer monitor) published quarterly by the Institute of German Industry (IW) on behalf of the VDI .

The largest category was computer science, with an average of 42,920 vacancies per month; in particular, skills in the interface between the IT and electrical engineering sectors. There is also high demand for civil engineers, engineers for machine and vehicle engineering as well as energy and electrical engineering. According to the Association of German Engineers (VDI), the figures clearly show that securing skilled workers in engineering and computer science occupations is of primary importance in all labor market regions and in almost all technology sectors.