The DACH-Region Skills Transformation Index

A data-driven view of the skills driving change in the German, Austrian, and Swiss labour markets.

About the DACH-Region Skills Transformation Index

The world of work is increasingly defined not by qualifications and job titles, but by the skills that people possess and the skills that employers are looking for. Recognition of this has been behind the European Commission dubbing 2023 the "Year of Skills". But how much are workforce skills changing and how does change differ between occupations, industries and companies? Using our unparalleled job postings data and skills insights, we've identified some key metrics that shed light on these questions in the German, Austrian and Swiss (DACH) labour markets, which you'll find below in three sections:

THE SKILLS INDEX

An index of occupations across the DACH labour market, ranked according to change in their skills composition over the last year.

IN-DEMAND SKILLS

A deep-dive looking at the most in-demand specialised skills requested by employers for the top 10 occupations from the Index.

INDUSTRY FOCUS

A comparison of the in-demand skills sought by some of the top companies in four key industries in the DACH-region labour market.

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Explore the Data

The Skills Index

The Skills Index measures how occupations across the DACH region have changed in terms of employer skills requirements. To calculate this, we analysed the change in skill share for every 4-digit ISCO occupation between 2021 and 2022, and indexed them from 0-100 according to skills change. The higher the ranking, the higher the level of skills change.

The chart below shows the top 25 occupations from the Index, organised under their 1-digit ISCO Classification, which you can filter by clicking on the dropdown. Most of the top ranked occupations are in the Professionals Occupation Group, particularly in digital roles such as Software Developers, Systems Analysts, and Web & Multimedia Developers. This is perhaps unsurprising, given the fast pace of change in digital technology, but it does give rise to questions about which digital skills are in-demand. You’ll find more about that in the In-Demand Skills section below, and you can also check out our blogs that deal with this topic in-depth here, here, and here.

In-Demand Skills

In the section below, we've done a deep dive into each of the top 10 occupations from the Index, identifying the top 20 specialised skills requested by employers across the DACH region in 2022, according to the proportion of job postings they appear in. For example, computer science appeared in 31.4% of all job postings for Software Developers.

Click on the dropdown to check out each occupation, and move your cursor over the bars to find out which skills group and skills subcategory they belong to. You can find out more about the Lightcast Skills Taxonomy here.

Industry Focus

In the sections below, we look at 10 of the biggest companies within four of the DACH region's most important sectors: Advanced Manufacturing; Consulting; Finance; and Pharmaceutical. Each section has three charts:

Chart 1: The proportion of job postings for each company, relative to the total number of online job postings across all of the 10 companies in 2022.
Chart 2: The top 10 occupations each company was hiring for in 2022, measured by the proportion of job postings each occupation made up of the company's total postings.
Chart 3: The top 20 skills for a key occupation, benchmarked to the average across the 10 companies, helping us see the relative importance each company places on these skills.

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Advanced Manufacturing

This section looks at nine of the biggest Advanced Manufacturing giants in the region - ABB; Audi; BMW; Bosch; Continental; Mercedes-Benz; Rheinmetall; Siemens; Volkswagen - plus Tesla's German operation for comparison. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Of the 10 companies, Bosch had the largest share of postings, accounting for 25.8% of the total, followed by Siemens with 25.4%, and Mercedes with 15.1%.
Software Developers appears in the top 10 in-demand occupations for all companies. Systems Analysts; and Engineering Professionals appear in nine.
Some occupations appear in the top 10s for just one company including: Database Designers & Administrators (BMW); and Electronics Engineers (Bosch).
Above average skills demand for Software Developers includes: Siemens and ABB (automation); Audi (mechatronics); and Rheinmetall (Electronics).

Consulting

This section looks at 10 of the biggest consulting firms headquartered in the region: D-Fine; Detecon; Horvath; KPS International; Porsche Consulting; Q_Perior; Roland Berger; Simon-Kucher; UNITY AG; and Zeb Consulting. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Of the 10 companies, Zeb Consulting had the largest share of postings, accounting for 23.6% of the total, followed by Porsche Consulting with 21.8%, and Detecon with 19.0%.
Systems Analysts appears in the top 10 in-demand occupations for all companies. Advertising & Marketing Professionals; and HR Managers appear in nine.
Occupations appearing in just one top 10 include: Graphic & Multimedia Designers (Horvath); Industrial & Production Engineers (Porsche Consulting); Authors/Writers (UNITY AG).
Above average skills demand for Consulting Analysts includes: D-Fine (data science); UNITY AG (digital transformation); and Q-Perior (management consulting).

Finance

This section looks at 10 of the biggest consulting firms in the DACH countries: Allianz; Commerzbank; Deutsche Bank; Deutsche Börse; Erste Bank; Lbbw; Raiffeisen Bank; Swiss Re; UBS; and Zurich Insurance. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Of the 10 companies, Raiffeisen Bank had the largest share of postings, accounting for 19.7% of the total, followed by Deutsche Bank with 18.9%, and Allianz with 16.5%.
Systems Analysts appears in the top 10 occupations for all companies. Accountants; Software Developers; and Financial & Investment Advisers are in nine.
Occupations appearing in just one top 10 include: Legal Professionals (Deutsche Börse); and Personnel & Careers Professionals (Erste Bank).
Above average skills demand for Financial Advisors, Analysts, & Accountants includes: Swiss Re (cybercrime); Allianz (Investments); and Commerzbank (financial services).

Pharmaceutical

This section looks at 10 of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the region: Bayer; Biontech; Boehringer Ingelheim; CureVac; Lonza; Merck; Novartis; Roche; Sartorius; and Vetter. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Of the 10 companies, Roche had the largest share of postings, accounting for 19.5% of the total, followed by Biontech with 17.9%, and Bayer with 14.6%.
Software Developers; and Systems Analysts appear in nine of the top 10 in-demand occupations. Business Services & Administration Managers are in eight.
Occupations appearing in just one top 10 include: Lawyers (Sartorius); Buyers (Lonza); and Manufacturing Managers (Vetter).
Above average skills demand for Chemical & Biological Science Professionals includes: Vetter (analytics); Biontech and CureVac (mRNAs); and Merck (biology).

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Blog09.13.2023