Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.)
Terms and definitions
The automatability of a task indicates whether this task could be performed fully automatically by a computer or a computer-controlled machine. As technological possibilities change, the assessment of the automatability of tasks is regularly updated. The current version of the Job-Futuromat shows the automatability of tasks based on the technological possibilities in 2022.
Whether these tasks are actually taken over by computers depends on many factors. If human work is more economical, more flexible or of better quality, automation rather not takes place. Legal or ethical barriers may also prevent automation.
Further reading: The impacts of digital transformation on the labour market: Substitution potentials of occupations in Germany (Dengler/Matthes 2018).
An occupation describes a bundle of typical tasks which require identical or very similar skills, knowledge and qualifications to be carried out.
Occupations with similar bundles of tasks and requirement levels are grouped into occupational groups. In the classification of occupations, the Federal Employment Agency refers to “occupational types”.
Core tasks are tasks that shape the occupational profile. They describe the skills and knowledge essential for an occupation. On behalf of the Federal Employment Agency, occupational experts have worked out what these tasks are based on training regulations and job advertisements. A core task in the baker profession is, for example, the production of dough.
In addition, there are tasks that no longer, not yet or only recently occur in the respective occupation. Some tasks are only relevant for a small proportion of jobs. These skills and knowledge may possibly be necessary to perform an occupation. One example is decorating cakes in the baker occupation. In the Job-Futuromat these tasks are listed as “other tasks”.
Ecologically sustainable tasks refer to skills, knowledge, technologies and practices that are necessary for an ecologically sustainable economy, which are classified as “environmentally friendly” in specialist sources. They can be found, for example, in the context of renewable energies and resources; in the areas of energy, raw material and material efficiency; and in recycling, nature conservation and species protection. Ecologically sustainable activities are also referred to as “green skills”.
Hard skill requirements are occupation-related abilities. They demonstrate the ability to perform tasks independently and autonomously within the respective occupational context (cf. Stops et al. (2025), page 57.).
Soft skill requirements are abilities that are not directly related to an occupational context. They can be equally important in a wide variety of occupations (see Stops et al. (2020), page 23.).
The IAB Competence Compass is an ongoing project run by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). It involves developing methods for extracting structured information from job advertisements. One of the project’s objectives is to identify requirements for hard and social skills.
Funding for the IAB Competence Compass comes from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and, in part, from the German government's data lab initiative, which is supported by the European Union's NextGenerationEU programme (cf. Stops et al. (2025).).
Data and Methods
The BERUFENET of the Federal Employment Agency serves as a starting point. It assigns approximately 8,000 different tasks to occupations. For each of these tasks, three coders independently researched whether there was a computer or a computer-controlled machine that could carry it out fully automatically.
Further reading: The impacts of digital transformation on the labour market: Substitution potentials of occupations in Germany (Dengler/Matthes 2018).
The automatability of an occupation is obtained by first dividing the number of automatable core tasks of an occupation by all its core tasks and multiplying the result by 100. Research refers this as the substitution potential.
Only the core tasks of this occupation are taken into account in the calculation. It is assumed that each core task is performed with the same frequency and therefore has the same influence on the calculation of automatability.
automatability of an occupation =
(number of core tasks that can be automated / number of all core tasks) × 100
The Job-Futuromat works with so-called “task profiles”. They reflect the tasks in the (desired) occupation in real working life. In your individual task profile, you can therefore deselect core tasks and add further tasks. Just use the sliders to set how often the respective task is performed. The automatability of your (desired) occupation is calculated or adjusted accordingly.
If a task is deselected or never carried out, it is given a zero weighting. If a task is carried out permanently, it is given a weight of one. For any other slider position, the task receives a corresponding weight between zero and one.
The more frequently an automatable task is carried out, the higher the level of the automatability.
The more frequently a non-automatable task is carried out, the lower the level of the automatability.
If all tasks can or cannot be automated, the sliders have no influence on the calculation of the automatability.
The automatability of a task profile results as follows: First, two sums are formed. On the one hand, the selected automatable core tasks and other tasks are weighted according to their frequency and then added together (sum 1). On the other hand, the number of selected core tasks and other tasks are added together (sum 2). Sum 1 is divided by sum 2. The result is multiplied by 100.
automatability of activity task profile =
(sum of the selected automatable core tasks and other tasks weighted by frequency / number of selected core tasks and other tasks) × 100
The Job-Futuromat contains information on approximately 4,000 occupations known in Germany. The BERUFENET of the Federal Employment Agency serves as a database.
On behalf of the Federal Employment Agency, occupational experts have worked out which tasks need to be carried out in a particular occupation. This also determined whether the tasks are core tasks or other tasks. Training regulations and job advertisements served as a basis.
We want to show reliable empirical results. That is why the IAB Competence Compass is subject to two methodological conditions:
- We only display competency requirements for occupational groups for which at least 50 job advertisements were published in 2024.
- We only display results where the respective skill requirement was found in at least 10% of job advertisements.
Unemployed persons are people who
- are temporarily not in employment or are employed for less than 15 hours per week,
- are seeking employment subject to social security contributions for at least 15 hours per week,
- are available for the placement efforts of the employment agency or the job centre, that is who are allowed to work, capable of work and willing to work,
- live in the Federal Republic of Germany,
- are not younger than 15 years of age and have not yet reached the age limit for retirement and
- have personally registered as unemployed with an employment agency or job centre.
Scope of application: The information in the Job-Futuromat refers to occupational groups, officially called “occupational types“. If there were less than three unemployed persons in a year in one occupational type, no data is displayed for reasons of data protection.
Calculation basis: The data in the Job-Futuromat each represent the annual average. This is done by adding the values for January to December of a year and dividing by twelve.
Source: Statistics of the Federal Employment Agency.
A revised version of the classification of occupational groups was introduced at the beginning of 2021. Comparability of data before and after this is in part only possible to a limited extent.
For more information, please refer to the method report of the Federal Employment Agency.
The number of employees includes all full-time, part-time and trainee employees subject to social security contributions. Self-employed persons, civil servants and mini-jobbers are not included.
Scope of application: Data refer to occupational groups, officially called “occupational types”, as of 31 December respectively. If there are less than three employees in one occupational type, no data is displayed for reasons of data protection.
Calculation basis: The data in the Job-Futuromat are based on employers’ social security notifications.
Source: Statistics of the Federal Employment Agency.
A revised version of the classification of occupational groups was introduced at the beginning of 2021. Comparability of data before and after this is in part only possible to a limited extent.
For more information, please refer to the method report of the Federal Employment Agency.
Vacancies are defined as jobs subject to social security contributions or marginal (mini-jobs) and other jobs (for example internships and traineeships) with a planned duration of employment of more than seven calendar days, which are reported to the employment agencies and job centres with an order to fill.
Scope of application: The information in the Job-Futuromat refers to occupational groups, officially called “occupational types”. If there were less than three job vacancies in a year in one occupational type, no data is displayed for reasons of data protection.
Calculation basis: The data in the Job-Futuromat each represent the annual average. This is done by adding the values for January to December of a year and dividing by twelve.
Source: Statistics of the Federal Employment Agency.
A revised version of the classification of occupational groups was introduced at the beginning of 2021. Comparability of data before and after this is in part only possible to a limited extent.
For more information, please refer to the method report of the Federal Employment Agency.
Gross wages are the salary of an employee subject to social security contributions, before deduction of tax and social security contributions.
Scope of application: all full-time employees subject to social security contributions in one occupational group, officially called “occupational type”; apprentices are not taken into account.
Calculation basis: The annual gross wages declared by employers on 31 December, converted into gross wages per month. If fewer than 500 people are employed in one occupational type, no wages are shown because the calculation is considered unreliable due to insufficient data.
If the gross wages per month for more than half of all employees are above the contribution assessment limit, only the contribution assessment limit is specified. It is based on the lowest value applicable to the federal territory (2024: €7,450 per month).
Source: Statistics of the Federal Employment Agency.
Let us assume, that we rank all gross wages of full-time employees according to size. There is then a value that lies exactly in the middle of this data series: That is the median. The median therefore divides the employees into two halves according to their gross wages: One half receives gross monthly wages up to the median value. The other half receives more.
All specifications on automatability refer to the technological possibilities existing in 2022.
The Job-Futuromat was developed as part of the ARD theme week “Future of Work” in 2016. The concept came from Björn Schwentker, a data journalist from Hamburg. The Statistics of the Federal Employment Agency and the IAB supplied the data for the tool and provided advice on the technical implementation.
The results of the Job-Futuromat initially referred to the technological possibilities in 2013. In the course of progressive digitalisation, task profiles and automatabilities have been reassessed in 2016, 2019 and 2022.
Interpretation Aids
The Job-Futuromat is aimed at pupils, graduates, employees and job seekers. It shows to what extent the desired or performed occupation could be automated. In this way, the Job-Futuromat prepares users for possible structural changes. Those affected have the opportunity to initiate suitable measures in good time, for example further training
However, automatability alone should not be the decisive criterion for or against an occupation. A high degree of automatability is not an indication that the occupation will soon cease to exist. It merely signals that a number of digital technologies could be used in the occupation. These technologies may change the tasks typical of the occupation.
Not necessarily. Katharina Dengler and Britta Matthes (Dengler/Matthes 2018) show that in occupations with a high automatability, employment falls, or grows less strongly. However, there are some occupations in which employment is growing – despite a high automatability – and where are currently even shortages of skilled workers.
High automatability therefore does not necessarily mean that automation is actually and immediately implemented. In addition to technological feasibility, many other aspects play a role. For example, substitution will rather not take place
- when the use of labour force is more economical
- when there is a need to be extremely flexible in responding to the demands of the work to be done, or
- if the handmade product is of better quality or is more appreciated, respectively.
Even if tasks are automated, this does not inevitably mean that an occupation disappears. As a rule, it is the task profile that tends to change. So, keeping up to date is becoming increasingly important.
The Job-Futuromat data represent a snapshot. As technologies are being developed further, it is quite possible that even in occupations with currently low levels of automatability, tasks can in future be carried out by computers or computer-controlled machines.
No, the Job-Futuromat does not give a forecast. Rather, it shows which tasks in a job or task profile could potentially be automated. The reference point is the state of the art in 2022.
However, the Job-Futuromat does say something about the future: First, it can be assumed that automatable tasks will become less important or even completely automated. Secondly, it lists the technologies that could play a role in the future of the occupation. This way you know which topics you should deal with in order to be fit for the respective occupation.