Employment by occupation

The needs of individual professions and occupational groups in the sectors change in the course of the economic development process. The range of tasks and fields of activity of an occupation are constantly changing in line with changing requirements.

The annual average growth in employees subject to social security contributions was 1.5% in the past 10 years; from 2023 to 2024, however, it was only 0.5%. The economic development in the individual economic sectors is partly reflected in the development of employment in the occupations.

Scientific and technical professions with significant employment growth

A look at the 36 main occupational groups (BHG) according to the so-called occupational specialization of the activity performed shows that the developments can be very different. From 2023 to 2024, the scientific-technical main occupational groups in particular show above-average growth rates in the number of SI employees. These include, among others

• "Geology, geography, environmental protection professions" (5.7 %),
• "Mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics professions" (5.6 %),
• "Computer science and other ICT professions" (4.2 %) and
• "Mechatronics, energy and electrical professions" (2.9 %).

In addition, "legal and administrative professions" (3.7 %) and "financial services, accounting, tax consultancy" (2.5 %) also recorded a significant increase in employment. Within the healthcare sector, which is so important for the Hannover Region, the "medical healthcare professions" (2.7 %) recorded a large increase in employment.

Last year, however, the occupational group of "Teaching at general education schools" was particularly hard hit by a decline in employment (-11.3%).

Within the construction professions, the "building construction and civil engineering professions" (-8.3 %) experienced a comparatively large loss of employment.

Within the main occupational group "Tourism, hotel and catering occupations", the number of employees in the catering industry increased (3.0%), while the hotel occupations decreased (-4.2%).

Proportionate decline in skilled workers

The level of requirements for the jobs performed has changed significantly over the past 10 years. On the one hand, the growth in employment of experts and specialists was well above the average employment trend (1.5 %) at just under 3 % each, while at the same time the number of employees with a helper job rose by 3.0 %. By contrast, the development of skilled workers was well below average at 0.5%. As a result, the proportion of experts and specialists in employment rose by 1.8 percentage points each, while the proportion of employees with a helper's job rose by 2.3 percentage points. The proportion of skilled workers among all employees fell by 5.5 percentage points in the same period.

Note: Further information on the composition of the occupational aggregates can be found in the regional reports of the Federal Employment Agency. The requirement level of the activities performed is not equal to the vocational qualification.

Last updated: 03/2025