Ranking: Underrated but dynamic: Ten cities and regions that currently offer good job opportunities

Berlin. The labor market is tense: More than half of Germans believe that looking for a job is currently more strenuous than it was a year ago, according to a survey by the job portal LinkedIn. Many people are now turning their attention to regions that were not previously on their wish list as a place to live - but which are now opening up new options.

Cities like Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt traditionally attract many job seekers. But there are also areas outside of the metropolises with above-average career opportunities, according to a further analysis by LinkedIn. In its “Cities on the Rise” report, the job portal highlights ten cities and regions in which there are currently particularly many opportunities for attractive jobs.

The basis is platform data on new hires, the creation of new jobs and the influx of skilled workers throughout Germany. Regions such as Munich or Berlin with more than a million LinkedIn members were excluded from the study so that the focus is on medium-sized and smaller metropolitan areas.

Bremen is in first place this year - last year the Hanseatic city was in fifth place. At more than eleven percent, unemployment there is significantly higher than the national average. However, the LinkedIn ranking does not measure the general economic situation or the unemployment rate. Indicators of the dynamics of the labor market are crucial: more hiring, more job offers and professional immigration.

“The results of the ranking are based on trends,” says Matthias Bergleiter, Head of News at LinkedIn. “These do not reflect the current static overall condition, but rather the relative growth.”

Despite structural problems such as high unemployment and the pressure on traditional industries - such as the steel sector - LinkedIn analysts see new, promising opportunities in Bremen. The city is benefiting, among other things, from the boom in the arms industry. The space company OHB SE has its headquarters in Bremen, and Rheinmetall and Airbus Defense also have locations there. Rheinmetall alone has currently advertised more than 200 positions in the Hanseatic city.

Heilbronn climbed from ninth to second place. The city is significantly expanding its science location: in the future, more than 5,000 specialists will work in a new innovation park for artificial intelligence, in which the local Schwarz Group is also involved. In addition, up to eight Fraunhofer centers in Heilbronn want to pool their activities.

The nearby Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region – supported by cities such as Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg as well as a strong surrounding area – made it to third place in the ranking. This improves it by one rank.

The DAX group BASF is based in Ludwigshafen. The company employs around 55,000 people in Germany, including 33,000 at the Ludwigshafen site. SAP also has its headquarters in the region: around a quarter of its 110,000 employees worldwide work in Walldorf.

In general, job opportunities are good in the southwest. The Baden-Württemberg cities of Tübingen (5th place), Karlsruhe (8th place) and Freiburg (9th place) also made it into the top ten.

Individual regions also stand out in North Rhine-Westphalia. As in the previous year, the university city of Münster is in sixth place. According to LinkedIn, the city's population is growing steadily at an annual rate of around 0.4 to 0.6 percent - the university is an important driving force. There are also many start-ups from the areas of digital economy, AI and deep tech.

Düsseldorf improved by one place and is now in seventh place. Although the unemployment rate here is higher than the national average, there are still good career opportunities according to the LinkedIn ranking.

And not just because established companies such as Vodafone and Rheinmetall have their headquarters in the North Rhine-Westphalian capital: the city recently also recorded a record number of start-ups. Thanks to its role as a hub for the energy transition and the hydrogen economy, the Ruhr area even made it to fourth place.

Leipzig, a city in the east, is also represented in the top ten. According to LinkedIn, the reason is the positive employment development there and the planned investments. In 2024 alone, the city will have invested around 1.3 billion euros in infrastructure and urban development.