Skills Shortage at the Front Desk 2026: Which Jobs Are Hit in Germany and What AI on the Phone Really Takes Over

In short: In 2026 Germany's skills shortage is no longer everywhere, but it persists exactly where the phone rings most. In tax advisory, according to the German Economic Institute (IW), about 7 in 10 open skilled positions cannot be filled with suitably qualified jobseekers, and for dental assistants it is almost one in two. Overall the bottlenecks have shrunk: the Federal Employment Agency counts 157 shortage occupations, down from 183 in 2023. An AI phone agent does not replace a skilled worker. It takes the calls that always run the same way off the existing team, such as appointments, opening hours and callback requests. Advice, medical assessment and anything that needs judgement stay with people.

The first version of this article from February 2026 spoke of a "critical threshold" and guaranteed availability without backing up a single number. We rewrote it in October 2026. The figures come from the Federal Employment Agency, IW, the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), the Federal Statistical Office and the professional chambers, retrieved on 6 October 2026. Sources are listed at the end.

How big the skills shortage really is in 2026

Four institutions measure the shortage, each in its own way. Together they show a clear picture: the German labour market has eased noticeably since 2023.

Two more figures show how the situation has turned. According to the IAB, there were 291 unemployed people for every 100 open positions in the second quarter of 2026. Employers received an average of 16 applications per new hire in 2025, compared with 9 in 2022. [5] The Federal Employment Agency explicitly states that there is currently no evidence of a general labour shortage. [1] The IW titled its 2025 annual review "weak labour market". [4]

Anyone who concludes that the problem is solved is still wrong. The shortage has retreated to specific occupations, and several of them sit at the front desk. It also hits small businesses harder: according to the IW, small and medium-sized companies were particularly affected in 2025, and according to the DIHK more than 40 percent of them struggle to fill positions. [4] [6]

Where the front desk is short: the figures by occupation

KOFA calculates for each occupation how many open positions cannot be filled with suitably qualified unemployed people. For the occupations that answer the phone in German practices and firms, the picture in March 2026 looks like this:

Source: KOFA skilled labour report March 2026, table 1. [3] In Germany, medical and dental assistants are trained professionals who run reception, scheduling and billing in a practice and also assist with treatment.

The differences are large. In tax advisory there are, in arithmetic terms, no suitable applicants for 7 in 10 open skilled positions, in dental practices for almost one in two and in medical practices for one in ten. The gap has narrowed everywhere, but it has disappeared nowhere.

The DIHK asks differently, namely the companies themselves. In health and social services 61 percent cannot fill open positions, in legal and tax advice and auditing 53 percent and in hospitality 40 percent. As consequences, the DIHK mainly names additional workload for existing staff (55 percent) and restrictions on what companies can offer (36 percent). [7]

Tax advisory firms

In spring 2024 the Federal Chamber of Tax Advisers surveyed more than 5,800 tax advisers. Sole practitioners had been unable to fill 59.1 percent of their open positions in the previous two years. Six years earlier the figure was 35.9 percent. Larger firms came to 29.1 percent. For tax clerks the values are 60.9 and 36.1 percent. [8] New talent is not catching up: on 1 January 2026 there were 17,081 tax clerk apprenticeships in Germany, 1.3 percent fewer than a year earlier. [9]

The smaller the firm, the harder it is hit. And that is exactly where the tax clerk answers the phone on the side, between two payroll runs.

Law firms

In 2025, 2,885 new apprenticeship contracts were signed for legal and notary assistants, 21 fewer than the year before. The decline has slowed: in 2022 it was more than 11 percent, in 2023 almost 5, in 2024 about 3 and in 2025 just 0.72 percent. [10] Training is concentrated in few firms. According to a survey commissioned by the Federal Bar, only about 20 percent of law firms train legal assistants. [11]

Medical and dental practices

Dental practices are searching far more desperately than medical practices, as the table above shows. For medical practices, the Central Research Institute of Ambulatory Health Care provides another revealing figure: one full-time medical assistant position looks after about 2,500 treatment cases a year, and the average practice has three and a half such positions. The data date from 2022. [12] In total, about 790,000 people work in German practices. [13] Besides the phone, medical assistants support scheduling, billing and documentation, according to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV). [14] Every call therefore competes with work that also goes undone.

Hotels

For hospitality as a whole, the DIHK reports 40 percent of companies with unfilled positions. [7] We did not find a current association figure specifically for hotel reception staff, so we do not give one.

Why this will not resolve itself

The easing of the labour market is cyclical, the shortage is demographic. By 2040 about 13.3 million people in the German labour force will have passed the retirement age of 67, which is 30 percent of the labour force. [15] The Federal Employment Agency describes the cause of the bottlenecks plainly: more and more employees are retiring while fewer young people follow. Immigration absorbs part of this. The share of foreign employees in shortage occupations has doubled since 2014 to about 14 percent. [2]

There is also a contradiction. The businesses hit hardest by the shortage are the least likely to use AI. Among German companies with 10 to 49 employees, 23 percent used AI in 2025 according to the Federal Statistical Office, compared with 57 percent of companies with 250 or more. [16] Why that is and what an AI phone assistant costs a small business is covered in our article on the AI phone assistant for small businesses.

What happens on the phone when a position stays empty

How much working time at the front desk goes to the phone, and how many calls go unanswered, has not been measured for Germany with a disclosed method. The percentages circulating online come from vendors of telephony and scheduling software. We do not repeat them.

What can be said: when a position stays empty, its work is spread across everyone else. At the front desk that means, in practical terms, that the dental assistant is assisting at the treatment chair while the phone rings at reception. Or that the tax clerk working on a VAT return is interrupted for the third time in an hour because someone wants to know whether their documents have arrived.

Instead of other people's numbers, we recommend keeping a tally for one week. Everyone who answers the phone makes a mark next to the matching request:

After one week you know how large the share of the first three rows is. That is the work an agent can take off your team. If it is small, the effort is not worth it.

What an AI phone agent takes over at the front desk and what it does not

For medical practices, the KBV drew a clear line in September 2026: asking about symptoms and assessing whether and how urgently treatment is needed are medical tasks. [14] A phone agent that books appointments and refers callers to 112 on fixed warning signs stays on the right side of that line. How this works in a practice is described in our article on automating appointment booking in medical practices.

For hotels something else matters. On the phone, the EchoCall agent speaks more than 30 languages and recognises which language the guest is calling in. That helps exactly in the night shift, when only one person is at reception. More on the page for hospitality. Law firms and tax advisers have their own page on legal and tax, practices the page on healthcare.

Professional secrecy in practices and firms

In Germany, doctors, lawyers and tax advisers are bound by professional secrecy. Under Section 203 of the German Criminal Code (StGB) they may disclose secrets to service providers involved in their work, as far as this is necessary. However, they must ensure that the service provider is bound to secrecy, otherwise they commit an offence themselves. [17] For lawyers and tax advisers, Section 43e of the Federal Lawyers' Act (BRAO) and Section 62a of the Tax Advisers Act (StBerG) set this out in more detail: a contract in text form that binds the service provider to secrecy and informs it of the criminal consequences. [18] [19]

So check whether the provider's data processing agreement contains these points. If not, you need a separate undertaking. In addition, since 2 August 2026 callers in the EU must learn at the latest when the conversation starts that they are talking to an AI (Article 50 of the AI Act). [20] One sentence in the greeting is enough.

How to introduce an AI phone agent without bypassing your team

1. Keep a tally for one week. As described above. Without your own numbers, every decision is a gut feeling.
2. Let the team write down the knowledge. The colleague at reception knows which ten questions come in every day and which answer avoids trouble. That colleague is the best author for the agent. Involving them gets you better answers and takes away the worry of being replaced.
3. Start small. Set up call forwarding with your phone provider, at first only when the line is busy, after a few seconds without an answer and outside opening hours. During the day your team remains the first voice.
4. Set limits. The agent transfers emergencies, running deadlines and complaints live to a person or takes an urgent callback request.
5. Read the transcripts for two weeks. With EchoCall, every call is available as a transcript in the EchoHub. Whatever the agent answers wrongly, the team corrects in its knowledge.

You can test all of this beforehand in the browser, with 30 voice minutes and 30 chat conversations for 14 days. After that a minute costs €0.30, and the smallest bundle is €75 a month for 250 minutes, with no setup fee. [21] We calculate the comparison with an answering service and a mini-job in the article for small businesses, and the step-by-step rollout is in the AI phone agent guide.

What an AI agent does not solve

A phone agent does not assist at the treatment chair, book receipts or draft pleadings. It does no billing and no documentation. It does not solve the skills shortage. It only shifts what the existing skilled staff spend their time on.

The real levers lie elsewhere: training, pay, predictable working hours and immigration. If only one in five law firms trains apprentices, tomorrow's legal assistants are already missing today. An agent on the phone can give an overloaded team some breathing room. It does not replace a staffing strategy.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI solve the skills shortage?

No. AI can take over individual tasks, on the phone mainly appointment booking, standard questions and callback requests. That gives the existing team time for work only skilled staff can do. It does not change missing training, pay or demographics.

Which front-desk occupations are hit hardest by the skills shortage in 2026?

According to the KOFA skilled labour report of March 2026, tax advisory, where 70.3 percent of open skilled positions cannot be filled in arithmetic terms, and dental assistants with 46.8 percent. For medical assistants the figure is 9.8 percent. By sector, the DIHK reports the most recruitment problems in health and social services at 61 percent.

Does an AI phone agent replace a medical assistant, dental assistant or tax clerk?

No. It takes over the recurring calls, not the work behind them. Billing, documentation, assisting patients and working on client files stay with people. In most businesses the point is that existing staff are interrupted less often.

May an AI phone agent book appointments in a medical practice?

Yes. Booking, moving and cancelling appointments is organisation. In the view of the KBV, asking about symptoms and assessing urgency are medical tasks. The agent should refer callers to 112 or, in Germany, to the out-of-hours medical service 116 117 when defined warning signs come up.

What applies to professional secrecy when a service provider answers calls?

In Germany, doctors, lawyers and tax advisers may involve service providers as far as necessary but must bind them to secrecy (Section 203 StGB). Under Section 43e BRAO and Section 62a StBerG, lawyers and tax advisers need a contract in text form that informs the provider of the criminal consequences. Check whether the provider's contract covers this.

How much time does an AI phone agent save the team?

That depends on what share of your calls is routine. There is no independent study on this for Germany. Count for one week which requests come in by phone. The share of appointments, standard questions and callback requests is the time an agent can take over.

What does an AI phone agent cost for a practice or firm?

With EchoCall €0.30 per minute, as a bundle from €75 a month for 250 minutes, with no setup fee. A practice with many appointment calls is more likely to need the bundle with 500 or 1,500 minutes. All prices are net. Whatever your phone provider charges for call forwarding comes on top.

Sources

All sources are in German unless marked otherwise.

1. Federal Employment Agency, statistics, skills shortage analysis: statistik.arbeitsagentur.de
2. Federal Employment Agency, press release No. 32 of 2 September 2026: arbeitsagentur.de
3. IW/KOFA, skilled labour report March 2026, page and PDF: iwkoeln.de, iwkoeln.de
4. IW/KOFA, annual review 2025 of 25 March 2026: iwkoeln.de
5. IAB job vacancy survey, second quarter of 2026: iab.de
6. DIHK, skilled labour report 2025/2026: dihk.de
7. DIHK, skilled labour report by sector: dihk.de
8. Federal Chamber of Tax Advisers, STAX 2024, special analysis on digitalisation and the skills shortage: bstbk.de
9. Federal Chamber of Tax Advisers, press release 05/2026 on apprenticeship numbers: bstbk.de
10. Federal Bar, apprenticeships 2025: brak.de
11. Federal Bar, STAR survey on non-lawyer staff: brak.de
12. Central Research Institute of Ambulatory Health Care (Zi), staffing in practices: zi.de
13. KBV, press release of 4 September 2026: kbv.de
14. KBV, press releases of 4 September 2026 and 20 August 2025: kbv.de, kbv.de
15. Federal Statistical Office, press release N039 of 23 June 2026: destatis.de
16. Federal Statistical Office, AI use by company size 2025: destatis.de
17. Section 203 StGB, violation of private secrets: gesetze-im-internet.de
18. Section 43e BRAO, use of services: gesetze-im-internet.de
19. Section 62a StBerG, use of services: gesetze-im-internet.de
20. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 on artificial intelligence, Article 50, in English: eur-lex.europa.eu
21. EchoCall, pricing: echocall.de/en/pricing

All links were checked on 6 October 2026. The institutes' figures refer to different periods and populations and cannot be compared directly. This article is not legal advice.

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