BERLIN, (Reuters) – Germany’s new coalition government plans to bring in 400,000 skilled workers annually from overseas to combat a lack of qualified labour and a severe demographic imbalance. This will help to reduce the risk of the country suffering from the outbreaks.

Christian Duerr (parliamentary leader for the Free Democrats) stated that “the shortage of skilled workers is so severe by now it is drastically slowing down our economic,” WirtschaftsWoche magazine reported.

Duerr stated, “We only can control the ageing problem with an older workforce… We need to get to the mark of 400,000 skilled laborers from abroad as fast as we possibly can.”

The coalition agreement between Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats and Duerr’s Libertarian FDP, and the Greens included measures like a points system that allows specialists to be credited from outside of the European Union. Also, the lifting of the minimum wage at 12 euro per hour (13.60 USD) was agreed by the Social Democrats and Duerr. This is to help make Germany more appealing to foreign workers.

According to the German Economic Institute, which is friendly to employers, the number of workers will decrease by over 300,000. This could be because more people are retiring and less newcomers enter the workforce.

The gap will grow to 650,000 by 2029. This would leave a accumulated shortfall of approximately 5 million people in their working years in 2030. Last year, the number of Germans employed grew by nearly 45million despite the outbreaks of coronavirus.

A shrinking labor force poses a threat to Germany’s public pension system. This is because fewer people are responsible for financing the pensions of an increasing number of retired persons who have a longer life expectancy.