Danish employers want workers imported from abroad but the employment minister rejects the idea

Copenhagen Post:

The government must open up for more import of labour force from abroad, the Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) said on Friday, after a study revealed that 12,230 vacancies proved impossible to fill in the private sector last year.

Daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten reported that 9000 of the jobs were meant for trained workers or university graduates.

'We are really faced with two choices,' said DA chief consultant Erik Simonsen. 'Either we export workplaces to countries with qualified workers available, or we import workers. We encourage the government to do the latter, since we can't find any Danes to hire.'

DA is backed up by the Chamber of Commerce (HTS), where chief economist Jens Brendstrup says importing labour is necessary for companies to get properly educated workers to fill vacant jobs.

Some of the positions that were impossible to fill last year were specialised engineer jobs. Chairman of the labour market committee in the Engineer Association, Ole Marqweis, said engineers had become so specialised, that being an engineer was not enough to get the job.

In principle, Marqweis said it was fine to allow the import of workers in cases of specific qualifications, which unemployed Danish engineers could not offer.

'But we would prefer that the company was willing to educate a Danish engineer,' he said.

Now there's an idea: when you are short of workers, train someone who is already living in the country instead of importing foreigners who may not assimilate into your culture very well.