Kindergartens in Germany are in crisis, with staff shortages wreaking havoc on the lives of working parents, damaging the country’s productivity and jeopardizing the future prospects of a generation of children.
A shortage of trained childcare workers in the EU’s biggest economy is causing overcrowding in day care centres, emergency closures and a shortage of available places – with far-reaching consequences for families, businesses and the labor market.
“The situation has never been so alarming,” said Rahel Dreyer, one of Germany’s leading authorities on early years education. “I experience it on a daily basis in my interactions with (child care) professionals, with parents who are completely at their limit, and with children who are exhausted by groups that are too large.”
Parents in Germany have some of the lowest childcare costs of any developed country, although with marked regional differences meaning fees can range from zero to around €1,200 a month.
But this fact masks deep problems within the reliability and quality of care.
While Olaf Scholz’s coalition government this year pushed through new legislation and additional funding for otheras day care centers for children under six are popular in Germany, the bill fell short of many experts’ hopes. Childcare is already playing a role in the campaign for the parliamentary election in February, with the main parties promising steps to tackle the crisis.
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Government spending on day care has increased significantly over the past 15 years, with the German public sector spending a net amount of around €46 billion in 2023 after expanding the number of places. This figure represents about 1.2 percent of GDP, up from about 0.7 percent in 2009, according to Stefan Sell, a professor of economics and social policy at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences.
Despite Germany’s falling birth rate, demand for extra places is rising as more mothers are returning to work after having children. “The increase in the number of childcare places and the associated costs is not enough to meet the demand,” Sell said. “We need even more (in) workers, but are becoming increasingly rare, if not impossible to find.”
The country has around 900,000 trained childcare professionals employed in the sector, but there are around 125,000 unfilled jobs, according to a report published in June by the Paritätische Gesamtverband, an umbrella association for health and social work organisations.
In an illustration of measures being taken in parts of Germany in response to the crisis, the government in North Rhine-Westphalia recently proposed allowing a single trained day care worker to be responsible for up to 60 children – as while they had support from other professionals such as musicians, gardeners or craftsmen.
The staff shortage, which is reflected in aged care and health care, has contributed to a nationwide shortage of about 300,000 in countries, mostly in western Germany.
The problem has put pressure on existing staff, who unions say are overworked and stressed. The main issue is not the salary – the average salary before tax for the highly trained in Germany in workers are 3,750 euros per month, lower than the average wage, but much higher than the minimum wage.
Many trained childcare workers were being put off by the “disastrous conditions” of the profession, Katja Ross, a daycare teacher from the northern city of Rostock, told parliament in October.
Those working in childcare suffer one of the highest levels of sickness absence in Germany, with an average of 30 days off sick per year, compared to the national average of 20.
As a result, other regularly announce shortened opening hours or even close at short notice, leaving children and parents – and their employers – in the lurch.
“The first thing I do every morning is check my phone and see if there’s a message from him in app,” said Mirjam Hock, a working mother of an 18-month-old who lives in the Bavarian city of Augsburg.
“We get messages about twice a month asking us to pick him up early or saying: can your child stay at home?”
Hock, who works as an IT project manager and sits on the board of the German Working Mothers Association, said the situation put a strain on her work and her relationship with her partner. “You wake up in the morning and you’re afraid you’re going to disappoint someone today,” she said.
The phenomenon disproportionately affects women.
Germany has one of the highest female labor force participation rates in Europe, at around 76 percent. But this figure hides a high rate of part-time work for mothers, especially those with young children: just 27 percent of mothers with children under the age of six worked full-time in 2023, compared to 91 percent of fathers.
Jonas Fluchtmann, a labor market expert at the OECD Group of Advanced Economies, said the level of part-time work among mothers was “very high” compared to other countries, adding that it had negative effects for women’s current and future income. and for their pensions.
For some mothers, part-time work is a choice. But surveys suggest many want to work more than they actually do – leading economists to argue for better childcare as a way to boost national productivity.
The situation has caused some private businesses to find their own solutions to fill the gaps in the state’s provision. Energy company Eon sponsors 65 in set up in her home town of Essen, at an annual cost of around €4,000 per seat. The funds help pay for additional staff to improve staff-to-child ratios, making facilities more reliable.
At Berlin-based meal delivery service HelloFresh, executives have gone so far as to set up in-home childcare, where parents can book spots to be looked after by the company’s nanny – one of several business initiatives to attract and retain staff. “Every major organization in Berlin is doing some version of this,” said Johannes Willberg, the company’s senior vice president of people.
But most families don’t have the luxury of corporate support.
Dreyer, the early years expert, said she was concerned about the impact of the crisis on children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
She pointed to studies showing that the quality of education in a child’s early years can have a substantial impact on their future.
Failures of the country in the system had “consequences for children, parents, professionals and ultimately society as a whole,” she said. “If we don’t ensure that every child finds his or her place in society, then prosperity and cohesion will suffer.”
