What German Employers Actually Ask For: Skills by Job Role

If you are applying for jobs in Germany, knowing which skills appear most in ads is more useful than guessing. The figures below come from NewLuxJob's own German job-board data. For each role, the percentage shows the share of postings that mention that skill.

Professional and Office Roles

Accountant / Auditor - From 917 postings: Tax (66%), Excel (36%), Reporting (28%), SAP (28%), Auditing (23%), HGB (18%).

Finance - From 622 postings: Controlling (46%), Excel (42%), SAP (30%), Budgeting (29%), Forecasting (22%), IFRS (12%).

Consultant - From 572 postings: Strategy (42%), SAP (36%), Stakeholder Management (33%), Project Management (20%), Excel (12%), Agile (7%).

Data Analyst - From 691 postings: Python and SQL both at 52%. Machine Learning (25%), Excel (21%), Statistics (20%), Power BI (17%).

Software Developer - From 642 postings: Python (38%), CI/CD (27%), Java (24%), Agile/Scrum (23%), TypeScript (23%), Docker (21%).

One thing to notice: SAP appears across accounting (28%), finance (30%), and consulting (36%). It is not a niche enterprise skill in Germany - it shows up broadly across professional roles.

Healthcare, Care and Education

Nurse / Healthcare - From 990 postings: Nursing (91%), Documentation (38%), Geriatric Care (35%). Medication, Basic Care, and Patient Care each appear in under 10% of ads.

Childcare - From 922 postings: Pedagogy (93%), Under-3 Care (26%). Specialist approaches like Montessori appear in just 1% of ads.

Teacher - From 156 postings: Pedagogy (87%), Curriculum (15%), Special Education (10%).

Pedagogy is the near-universal baseline in both childcare and teaching. The gap between the top skill and the rest is wide in these roles.

Skilled Trades and Technical Roles

Electrician - From 1,027 postings: Maintenance (73%), Installation (61%), Troubleshooting (22%), PLC (11%).

Mechanic - From 961 postings: Maintenance (70%), Mechatronics (48%), Repair (45%), Automotive (20%).

Welder / Metalwork - From 1,108 postings: Welding (56%), Metal Fabrication (40%), Assembly (34%), Fitting (32%), CNC (27%), MIG/MAG (26%).

Construction Trades - From 583 postings: Painting (71%), Construction (25%), Renovation (8%), Drywall (7%).

Welding and metalwork ads spread skill requirements more evenly across the list than most other trades. MIG/MAG at 26% and CNC at 27% are mentioned in roughly 1 in 4 postings.

Service, Hospitality and Customer-Facing Roles

Customer Support - From 1,096 postings: German (78%), Communication (62%), English (60%), CRM (12%), Ticketing (11%).

Cook / Chef - From 758 postings: Kitchen (62%), Hygiene (54%), HACCP (39%).

Waiter / Hospitality - From 421 postings: Service (73%), Hospitality (70%), HACCP (8%), Guest Relations (6%).

Sales - From 469 postings: Negotiation (55%), CRM (34%), B2B (24%), Pipeline (24%), Account Management (24%).

In customer support, German language skills appear in 78% of ads and English in 60%. Both rank ahead of any technical tool.

How to Read These Numbers

The percentage for each skill shows how often it is mentioned - not how much employers weight it. A skill at 20% still matters in those postings.

For production roles like Production Operator, the top skill dominates: Production appears in 98% of 1,191 postings. In other roles the spread is wider - Software Developer ads distribute requirements across Python (38%), CI/CD (27%), and several other skills in the 20s.

Use these figures to check whether your CV reflects what German employers are listing. For the full skill breakdowns and live vacancies, visit each role's page on NewLuxJob.