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They are concerned that bringing back a form of military conscription would further strain companies trying to recruit qualified workers in a tight labor market.
The German military’s growing need for new recruits is making businesses worry that their struggle to find staff will become even more difficult. Corporate representatives told the Financial Times that they support efforts to strengthen Europe’s largest nation’s military as NATO seeks to bolster its defenses against Russia. But they worry that bringing back a form of military conscription would further strain companies struggling to recruit skilled workers in a tight job market.
"The security situation is dramatic ," said Steffen Kampeter, director of the BDA, the country's largest employers' group, adding that he welcomed efforts to strengthen the armed forces. But he warned that the military would compete with civilian demand for personnel.
"Yes, we need more active-duty soldiers. Yes, we need to expand the reserve system. But only a strong economy can make that possible," he said.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius plans to introduce a voluntary conscription model that would initially see around 5,000 18-year-olds drafted into the army each year. But he has also acknowledged that such a scheme is unlikely to fill the huge gaps in the military, proposing a fallback option of returning to military service. Until 2011, young men were required to do military service or a civilian alternative.
Pistorius, who is from the Social Democrats, has not said how a model of compulsory conscription should work. But he has expressed support for the system in Sweden, where roughly 10 percent of young people are called up each year after a screening process.
While employment is at record levels, Germany has the shortest average working hours of any rich economy, according to OECD data. The country's new government, led by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has promised to make the nation work longer as part of a push to revive the sluggish economy.
Merz hopes that increasing working hours will also help with acute skills shortages in sectors such as healthcare, education and the engineering industry. Kampeter said this effort would be even more vital if the armed forces increased competition for workers.
"If necessary personnel leave us, that means issues like weekly working hours, length of working life, better integration of part-time workers into the labor market - all these topics become even more important ," he said.
A study last year by the Munich-based Ifo Institute found that it was better to spend money on making a voluntary military service program attractive than resorting to conscription. The research, which was commissioned by the German finance ministry, warned that a mandatory model would have high economic costs for the country, as well as having consequences for individuals and their financial prospects by delaying their entry into studies or work.
"Different people are good at different activities. If you have military conscription, which is not voluntary, that would force people who are not good at the military to serve in the military," said Panu Poutvaara, one of the authors.
The Ifo Institute found that a well-paid voluntary model that persuaded 5 percent of Germany’s annual cohort of 18-year-olds to sign up, about 39,000 people, would cost the government 1.5 billion euros a year in payments. That would be more than double the cost of a compulsory conscription model of the same size, which was supposed to offer a lower wage. But that would be offset by a smaller hit to gross national income. The effect would be greater if the government wanted to attract more recruits.
The army needs to be expanded by about 80,000 people over the next decade to meet Germany's NATO commitments. Senior military officials say the size of the army's reserves, made up of civilians who work with the military for a few weeks a year, should reach 200,000 in the coming years.
Merz, who has portrayed himself as a strong supporter of business, has called on the corporate world to make sacrifices to support this. Jens Günther and his family-owned interior design business, Günther-Innenausbau, won an award from the Ministry of Defense last year for allowing one of their carpenters to serve 15-20 days a year as a reservist. He said it had been a positive experience.
"I like to do my part... I have a motivated employee who broadens his horizons a little and brings things back to the company ," he said, adding that the company, which has about 20 employees, could not afford any more reservists.
Carlo Masala, professor of international politics at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, said concerns about the economic impact of a return to some form of military conscription were "exaggerated".
Even under a compulsory model, he said, he expected no more than about 25,000 young men to be called up for military service each year, far fewer than West Germany's more than 200,000 conscripts at the height of the Cold War./ Adapted from "Pamphlet" by "FinancialTimes"
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