The Federal Statistical Office has published the recognition figures for 2021. Every year, the BIBB Recognition Monitoring Project takes a closer look at figures on federal occupations.
In its press release on 15.09.2022, the Federal Statistical Office reports on recognition as a whole, i.e. federal and federal state occupations combined. It reports a total of 43,900 new applications. 79 percent (34,700) of new applications were for federal occupations and 21 percent (9,200) were for federal state occupations. While applications for federal occupations saw growth of 10 percent compared to the previous year, there was a 12 percent fall in the number of applications for occupations regulated at the federal-state level. Overall (federal and federal state occupations combined) this represents an increase of 5% compared with the previous year.
The BIBB Recognition Monitoring Project uses the publication of the statistics as an opportunity to take a closer look at the federal occupations:
34,700 new applications for federal occupations were received in the recognition offices in 2021 (an increase of 10 percent compared to the year before); 41% of these – and therefore significantly more than in previous years – were submitted from abroad, in particular from third countries.
Medical healthcare occupations once again dominated the overall recognition picture with almost 13,800 applications submitted by general nurses (German: Gesundheits- und Krankenpfleger/in and Pflegefachleute). The occupation of medical doctor was in second place, with around 6,400 applications. However, non-regulated occupations such as electronics technician (m/f) and cook (m/f) were also among the occupations most in demand.
In recent years, applications for federal occupations have stemmed increasingly from qualifications from third countries. This trend has continued: In 78 percent of new applications in 2021, the professional qualification came from a third country. The majority of these were qualifications from Bosnia and Herzegovina (3,600 applications), followed by applications relating to Philippine and Serbian qualifications (in each case well over 2000 applications).
In 2021, more than half of procedures for federal occupations resulted in full equivalence, and 11 percent of procedures arrived at the result of partial equivalence. In over a third of other cases, the competent authorities opted for a compensation measure as a “requirement”. 2 percent of procedures ended without recognition.
As the number of applications has increased, the procedures for federal occupations in 2021 have also become faster. For example, for non-regulated occupations, a decision was reached within three months in almost 80 percent of procedures. This is an increase of 20 percentage points compared to the previous year. A slight improvement was also evident in the area of regulated occupations.
For 2021, the competent authorities also reported that almost 1,130 of the new applications involved a recognition procedure under the accelerated skilled worker process in accordance with Section 81a of the Residence Act (AufenthG).
More information
Statistics on the federal act – results in brief
Download evaluation of the official statistics on the Federal Recognition Act 2021 (PDF, 1 MB)
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