"Our index provides a very detailed insight into how skilled workers currently rate their place of work and residence," says Martin Theobald, Managing Director of Terratalent. Skilled workers can choose where they want to work and their employer. Companies are also changing or relocating and access to skilled labour is often a deciding factor, as reflected by a European comparison with Sweden and Finland, where the Talent City Index was also conducted. "We see comparable trends and are also surprised by the number of skilled workers in Germany sitting on packed suitcases," says Morten King-Grubert, Director Talent Attraction at Future Place Leadership. The issue of family friendliness and proximity is more important in Germany than in Scandinavia. Respondents said Hamburg and Berlin were the most attractive cities in which to work - with a clear lead over Munich and Frankfurt.
Hamburg has ranked second after Berlin on the "Talent City Index Germany" in terms of attractiveness for talented professionals. Munich came third followed by Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Heidelberg, Augsburg, Aachen and Leipzig to complete the top ten of Germany’s 100 most attractive cities. Around 6,000 professionals were surveyed for the index by the management consultancy, Terratalent, and the Swedish think tank Future Place Leadership.
Access to skilled labour crucial
Hamburg top location for companies
The search is now on for skilled labour. To this end, the Hamburg Music association, for instance launched an initiative this year to open up new prospects for creative artists and to strengthen Hamburg as a city of music. A new job portal for the maritime industry launched earlier in 2024 to raise the sector’s profile. More than 60,000 port-related jobs in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region alone range from warehouse logistics specialists, engineers to pilots and bargemen. A survey by the German Economic Institute on the availability of renewable energy sources across Germany also put Hamburg in first place. And the city scored particularly well with a high proportion of skilled labour after topping the “European Cities & Regions of the Future 2022/2023”.
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