The people from the Berliner Stadtreinigung (BSR) have their hands full.

"It has to go zack, zack," says Pascal Zimmer, foreman of the disposal company.

The garbage collectors, who are no longer called that, have no time to lose.

They work piecework, almost always at a run, often pulling chaotically filled bins and containers out of Berlin's inner courtyards, heaving them over many a threshold, up to the grab arms of the garbage truck, which do the rest.

Inge Kloepfer

Freelance author for the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper in Berlin.

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The whole thing takes less than two minutes.

There is no time to remain.

With 6,000 employees, four farms, a waste-to-energy plant and two biogas plants, BSR is the largest municipal waste management company in Germany.

And this company has one problem above all: not enough staff, not just garbage workers.

The disposal company is not alone in this.

There is a lack of staff everywhere in Germany, which only really became apparent with the end of the corona lockdowns this year.

The economy has been complaining about the lack of skilled workers for years.

But it's not just about that anymore.

It is about a very fundamental shortage of staff in Germany: there is a lack of workers in the hotel and restaurant industry, at the workbenches, in schools.

All over.

Even positions with any cross-sectional function are no longer easy to fill.

According to the most recent inventory by the employer-friendly IW Cologne, every second company in the state is now complaining about vacancies that are difficult to fill.

We asked around companies in several German cities how they are struggling for staff - and how the lack of additional colleagues is affecting those who now have to do all the work.

Lengthy search for suitable employees

Berlin.

Pascal Zimmer started out as a garbage worker at the back of the garbage truck, then as a driver, navigating the almost ten-meter-long trucks with millimeter precision through the narrow side streets of Berlin.

Today he is tour master, coordinating and planning the tours – from 5.30 a.m., there are often enough changes.

"Then sick leave comes in or short-term vacation requests," he says.

At 6 a.m., the garbage trucks leave the yard.

For months, the city cleaning service has been running six days a week, and the colleagues have been working overtime.

“The staffing level is thin,” says Zimmer.

“If a lot of people are sick, tours are cancelled.

But they have to be made up for, even on Saturdays.” Again and again he jumps in spontaneously so that things can continue at all, as a refuse collector or driver, although he already has his hands full and rarely comes home after regular working hours.

Munich.

Benedikt von Bary has been looking for a junior accountant for about six months.

This is what used to be called an accountant.

Bary is Vice President at Pelion Green Future, an investment company of the Arvantis Group founded by Alexander Samwer and Jeremias Heinrich.

The company specializes in investments in the field of green energy and technology and is not only looking for new investment opportunities and investments, but also for personnel.

"It's becoming increasingly difficult to fill positions with specialized profiles, regardless of whether it's software development, marketing or accounting," reports Bary.

This is a challenge for many start-ups, above all because they are competing with classic industrial companies in these areas in particular,