Cleaning - largest skilled workforce in Germany

22nd of March 2022
Cleaning - largest skilled workforce in Germany

Katja Scholz, ECJ reporter, on latest cleaning industry data.

The sector report from the contract cleaning trade appeared at the beginning of the new year – with facts, figures and trends regarding the skilled trade with the largest workforce in Germany:  27,545 firms with just under 665,000 employees and a turnover of over €19 billion - this is contract cleaning trade Germany.

Dynamic growth

In the current sector report, the development of the contract cleaning trade is compared to that of all the other skilled trades in Germany. This shows that in the last 14 years, jobs with mandatory social security contributions rose by just short of 48 per cent in the contract cleaning trade, whereas in the skilled trade sector as whole, the rise was only 15 per cent. Just under 24 per cent of all new jobs with mandatory social security contributions in the trade sector as a whole were created in the contract cleaning industry.

One reason for this is no doubt is the complexity of this field of work: from traditional routine cleaning through glass and façades to hospital and industrial cleaning, the work is both diverse and of tremendous social relevance. And the contract cleaning trade, with its sector pay scheme and the collective wage agreement, is a very attractive employer: the number of part-time jobs has been declining for years, the universally binding minimum industry wage has existed for decades now – and the aim is that entry-level wages should remain above the legal minimum wage in the medium term.

Integrated role

The contract cleaning trade offers people of all ages, regardless of background, level of education or previous experience, opportunities for employment. Generally speaking, the sector is an employment creator for people who, according to statistics, experience particular difficulty in the German employment market. Just under 57 per cent of those employed in contract cleaning at present have no vocational qualifications, whereas in the economy as a whole there are 22 per cent.

“We in the contract cleaning trade can offer a low-threshold entry via the field of routine cleaning,” explains Christopher Lück, BIV director of policy and communications. “The second career path is via a professional training or apprenticeship programme, in order to learn the trade from the bottom up and then later possibly to earn the title of master craftsman or set up their own business.”

Dominant trends

No sector can ignore digitalisation and sustainability anymore – they are the future drivers and represent progress and change. In the contract cleaning trade we are increasingly concerned with developing concepts for waste prevention, energy efficiency and CO2 reduction – and also for sustainable mobility. In fact, 84 per cent of companies with access to one or several electric vehicles state that the acquisition has proved its worth.

Progressive digitalisation is also changing the industry: for example, robots – for cleaning inaccessible parts of a building or for nocturnal rounds in shopping centres - are becoming increasingly important. It is in fact private companies which score points with their innovative ideas and drive progress forwards.

However the sector report also shows contract cleaning will for the foreseeable future remain a ‘people business’ - as only three out of 10 activities can be automated. Digitalisation simply underpins the processes and contributes to the efficiency of the work.

 

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