Until 2030, the Lolland Municipality’s working-age population will shrink by 10 per cent, according to a new population projection from Statistics Denmark. The trend continues nationally. According to Dansk Erhverv, this could mean that Lolland and several other municipalities will run out of labour.
Ten per cent less capable of working
According to the figures from Danmarks Statistik, the Lolland Municipality will experience a 10 per cent drop in the number of people aged 16-66 capable of working. It is among the country’s highest, surpassed only by the Lemvig and Læsø municipalities at 12.3 and 12 per cent, respectively.
Overall, two out of three Danish municipalities are facing a decline in their workforce.
Alarming development
– It’s downright alarming. There is a regular risk that several municipalities will simply run out of manpower. That what we are experiencing now will be much worse. And that is in just eight years. It is deeply worrying that municipalities such as Norddjurs, Hjørring, Skive, Tønder, Lolland, Læsø, and Lemvig are all facing a drop in people of working age of eight per cent or more. It is scary to read, which means that all politicians in Christiansborg should have difficulty sleeping until a sufficient solution is found. After all, it is nothing less than our welfare state that is at stake, says Brian Mikkelsen, CEO of Dansk Erhverv.
Even though Lolland, with 3.1 per cent unemployed, is just above the national average of 2.7 per cent, a 10 per cent drop in the number of people able to work between the ages of 16 and 66 will be noticeable.
Not many young people
– We have a booming job market, and it doesn’t look like it will slow down. Even if there is talk of unemployment all around, you may have doubts about whether it will come here. And with our population composition, we don’t have that many young people we can throw into the labour market. In any case, there will be fewer and fewer young people who can enter the labour market, says Vibeke Grave (S), chairman of the social and labour market committee in Lolland Municipality. However, she hopes the Fehmarn project will mean moving to the municipality both during construction and when it is completed.
Half over 50
On the first of September this year, more than half of Lolland Municipality’s population was over 50. The Municipality of Lolland has, therefore, already started several recruitment initiatives to get ahead of the labour shortage. The problem cannot be solved locally.
Must come from outside
– It is clear that this is something that is going to have to come from outside. We are not going to fill the job vacancies now appearing on our labour market with our own population alone, says Vibeke Grave, who emphasizes that it is not only about foreign labour.
-It is also from Denmark. We see at the Fehmarn project that they come from Jutland and all sorts of places. But Denmark itself has a shortage of labour, so it is a little more difficult to recruit them from other parts of the country because they have the same problems as us, says Vibeke Grave.
