We Can't Pay You Much More, But Here's A Sausage

With unemployment in Germany falling and 1.2 million open jobs, companies are offering perks such as foreign travel and platters of local ham.

- Carolynn Look and Chris Reiter

Jakob Kratsch isn’t a Harvard Business School grad, an elite engineer, or a software whiz. He’s a 20-year-old manufacturing apprentice. And yet, a century-old factory near the old border between East and West Germany found him so desirable that the company included the possibility of a free trip to New York in his recruitment package.

As a top performer in his first year, Kratsch spent three days visiting sites such as the Empire State Building and Times Square and met with management at Harry’s Inc., a New York shaving-kit maker that four years ago bought the razor-blade plant where he works. “What kind of young person can go to New York and have their company pay for it?” Kratsch asks during a brief break from the din of the factory floor. “It builds a strong connection.”

The scramble for qualified workers has become an existential concern for companies across Germany, which are offering enticements ranging from overseas sojourns to sausage platters. After years of robust growth, unemployment has dropped to just over 5 percent, and the country has 1.2 million unfilled jobs—almost equivalent to the population of Munich. Manufacturing, construction, and health care are particularly stretched, and 1 in 4 businesses may have to hold back production as a result of the crunch, the European Union reports.