Deutsche Bahn / Hiring 10,000 new workers each year until 2020

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn spent years cutting jobs to save costs. As thousands of employees head into retirement, the company now must recruit more help, hiring 10,000 new workers each year until 2020.

In August 2013, the Mainz central train station came to a virtual standstill every evening as dispatchers were either on vacation or sick. A signal box crucial to the smooth operation of train traffic was unmanned, which meant not all trains could be accommodated at the stop. The Mainz debacle is just one example of German rail operator, Deutsche Bahn\’s, severely understaffed operation.

For years the rail operator, which employs about 300,000 people worldwide, saved costs by cutting jobs. Now a change of course appears to be at the next crossing: Deutsche Bahn plans to hire up to 10,000 people each year through 2020.

Ulrich Weber has been chief human resources officer of Deutsche Bahn since 2009, and his contract was recently extended until 2017 by the supervisory board. Although the decision to cut jobs came before his time, he doesn’t want to criticize his predecessors.

“Despite all the difficulties that we have experienced with weather, train availability and other external factors, the company is in stable condition, which is also to its credit,” Weber said of his predecessors’ work. In 2013, the company saw disappointing financial returns but slightly higher passenger numbers.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via After layoffs, Deutsche Bahn scrambles to recruit | Germany | DW.DE | 03.01.2014.