As he quickly learned, it's not easy finding full-time work in Germany as a foreigner, even though there is a serious need for the IT skills he possesses. Mr. Renner found and quit two technical-support jobs within several weeks of his arrival, after neither company helped him in navigating the German bureaucracy to obtain the necessary work permit. I didn't know what the process was, and apparently neither did my employers. These kinds of difficulties are not just a headache for people like Mr. Renner. They have even greater consequences for German industry and the economy.
German companies lag their American counterparts in the information age.
The biggest impediment to closing that gap is the glaring lack of talent in information technology, industry chiefs say. The German technology industry estimates it needs 75,000 specialists immediately. Unions argue that those jobs can be partially filled by retraining the 30,000 unemployed Germans with backgrounds in computer science. But most firms believe that to avoid falling behind the American juggernauts further, they need top talent now, and that can't be found in Germany. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has gotten the message.