Jobs in Germany 2026: Fields, Cities and Skills

Looking for jobs in Germany in 2026 and feeling like every application goes into a black hole? You are not alone, and the numbers below can help you aim better. As of November 2, 2026, JobRise tracks 865,932 open jobs in Germany. The openings are not spread evenly, so knowing where they cluster saves you a lot of wasted applications.

What this data covers#

These are jobs JobRise tracks from employer career pages and public job boards. It is not the whole German job market. About 97% of the listings come from Arbeitsagentur, the public job board run by Germany's Federal Employment Agency, so the numbers mostly describe that board.

JobRise started tracking on October 14, 2026. New-job counts only go back that far, and 10,502 jobs that were already open then have no known posting date, so they are left out of those counts. The full report is at /en/reports/hiring/germany/.

Here are the headline numbers. Of the 865,932 open jobs, 278,507 were posted in the last 30 days (32% of open jobs), and 74,027 in the last 7 days (8.5%). Roughly a third of the market is fresh, so the newest postings are a real share of what you can apply to.

Jobs in Germany 2026 by field#

Skilled trades is the biggest category by a wide margin, with 148,355 open jobs (17% of the total). Healthcare (12%) and logistics (8.1%) come next.

Two notes on that table. Categories come from job titles and departments using keyword rules, so "Internships" is a label, not a promise. Open the posting to see whether it is a student role, a training place or a full job. Also, "Other" (7.1%) is jobs the rules could not classify, so it is not a field and is not in the table.

If you are a software developer, the honest read is that software roles are 1.6% of open jobs. They exist, but this market is not mostly tech. Engineering is 1.8%. A tech skill next to a field with more openings, such as a trade, healthcare or logistics background, may get you more interviews than a pure tech profile.

Jobs in Germany 2026 by city and employer#

Berlin is the biggest city market, with 4.1% of open jobs (35,908 jobs). After that the shares drop fast:

• Hamburg: 2.2%
• Munich: 1.8%
• Köln: 1.1%
• Bremen: 1%
• Frankfurt: 0.9%
• Düsseldorf: 0.9%

No city outside Berlin has more than 2.2% of the openings, so a search in one big city can miss most of the market. Remote is a smaller slice. Of the 21,887 jobs from sources that mark remote work, 22% are remote (4,894 jobs). The remote share counts only roles limited to applicants in Germany, so read the location rules on each posting before you apply.

The biggest single employer is Netto Marken-Discount Stiftung & Co. KG, with 11,969 open jobs (1.4%). The top 15 employers together hold 8.9% of all open jobs, so the market is spread across many employers. Netto's latest roles include part-time sales, cleaning and admin jobs, which shows how wide one large employer's openings can be.

Several names on that list, such as TimePartner Personalmanagement and PerZukunft Arbeitsvermittlung, look like staffing or placement firms. The report counts the employer named on the posting, so a staffing firm's listing shows under the staffing firm. Check the posting for who will actually employ you.

Skills German employers ask for in 2026#

Skills are ranked by the number of companies whose open jobs name them, so one employer's copied text cannot push a skill to the top. The 10 most-named skills are below. The 30-day change compares the skill's share of jobs posted in the last 30 days with its share in the 30 days before.

Trades and care lead the list. HVAC, CNC, forklift licences and elderly care are each named by thousands of employers. If you have hands-on work or a licence, write it down exactly, because employers search for the exact term. The forklift licence matters most in logistics, where it appears in 8,436 open jobs (12% of that category).

Elderly care is also the top healthcare skill, named in 6,934 healthcare jobs (6.9%). ICU experience is next, at 2,194 jobs (2.2%).

HVAC is the most-named skill, but its 30-day change is -13%, so the share of new posts naming it is falling. A big skill is not always a growing one, so check the trend before you build a plan around it.

The German and English question#

German is named by 1,244 employers across 3,320 open jobs. English is named by 1,564 employers across 4,543 open jobs. In this data, English is named in more jobs than German, and both show strong 30-day gains (English +59%, German +50%).

A skill named in a posting is not the same as a fluency requirement. The data does not show the level asked for, so read each posting for the exact language line. Here is how the two languages compare in five fields:

In sales, German leads. In the other four fields, more employers name English than German. If your German is still growing, marketing, customer support, engineering and data and AI postings are a good place to start, and you can still learn German while you apply.

Skills that are growing fast#

JobRise marks these as rising: up more than 25%, in at least 50 open jobs at 20 or more companies. Rising here means more job posts name the skill. It does not mean the skill pays more.

SAP and ERP stand out. SAP is named in 868 operations jobs (1.9%), and that category's SAP figure is up 123% in 30 days. If you work in finance, operations or admin, a short SAP or ERP course on your resume is worth listing.

What to do next#

1. Start with the field, not the headline. Skilled trades, healthcare and logistics have the most openings in this data. If your background is in sales or customer service, look at the sales and customer service numbers above.
2. Check the language line on every posting. Find the exact German or English requirement before you apply, and skip roles where the language does not match what you can do.
3. Pick a city, then check the employer. Berlin has the most openings. You can browse live listings at /en/jobs/in/germany/, then open each posting and check who the real employer is.
4. Match your resume to the posting's words. If a posting names SAP, ERP or a forklift licence, use that exact term where it is true. Run one posting through the free ATS check and read how to tailor your resume for each job.
5. Decode the hard postings. If a posting has terms you do not know, paste it into the job description decoder before you decide.
6. Apply in small batches with a short message. Use the cover letter tool for each role, and send a short note to a recruiter with the cold email guide. Tailored applications usually do better than copy-paste ones.

Skills by field for Germany are on one page at /en/skills/germany/.

If you are moving to Germany from abroad#

This data does not cover visas, work permits, or what a German employer has to do to hire someone from outside the country, so this post does not answer those questions. Check official German government sources for your own situation before you plan a move or give up a job here. The data can still help you choose which roles to target, and which languages and skills to show, from wherever you are.

Want to see how your resume scores against a German posting? Run the free ATS check, or browse all free tools. Free, no signup.