There is no publicly reported time-to-fill in days for electrical occupations. If you have an installer position open and want to know what it costs you, you will still find numbers on the subject. They are not documented. The calculation is possible all the same — with your own figures from your own business, and with one time value that genuinely comes from official statistics.
Why there is no time-to-fill in days for electrical occupations
The Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) reports the time-to-fill (Vakanzzeit) of registered job vacancies by requirement level, not by individual occupation. Across all requirement levels, the Federal Employment Agency reports a figure of 165 days for the period from April 2025 to March 2026. That analysis contains no separate line for electrical occupations.
This has consequences for every number you will encounter on this topic. If a source states that an electrician vacancy stays open for a particular number of days on average, then that value does not come from the time-to-fill statistics. It has either been carried over from a different group or estimated. Either can be reasonable — it is only verifiable if the source says so. When in doubt, ask which table the number comes from.
For an electrical contractor doing the sums, the gap is not an obstacle. It only shifts where the values come from. The expensive items are in your own books anyway: order volume per installer, contribution margin, overtime premiums, contractual penalties from delayed handovers. The only external input is the time value. And for that, there is a documented approximation.
The cost of a vacant position is the sum of lost contribution margin, the additional cost of the work absorbed by the existing team, the cost of delays and the turnover risk — multiplied by the length of time the position stays open. The saved salary is set against that. Everything else continues to run. How this cost block is composed in general terms is covered in the article on the cost of vacancy.
The documented reference figure — 183 days at skilled-worker level
For the period from April 2025 to March 2026, the Federal Employment Agency reports the following times-to-fill: 183 days at skilled-worker level, 165 days across all requirement levels, 157 days at specialist level, 156 days for helper and semi-skilled roles, and 109 days at expert level.
A position for a qualified electrician with completed vocational training falls into the group of occupationally focused activities. The closest documented value for such a position is therefore the 183 days that the Federal Employment Agency reports for the skilled-worker level. That is an approximation via the requirement level and not an electrical-trade figure. Anyone who uses it in a calculation should write exactly that alongside it.
The difference between the requirement levels determines which reference figure is the right one in the first place. A position requiring a master craftsman’s certificate sits at a different level than an installer post filled by a journeyman, and a semi-skilled support role on site sits at another again. What separates the four levels from one another is explained in the article on professional, specialist and expert.
For context, a value from a different trade: at the top of the shortage occupations with the longest times-to-fill reported by the Federal Employment Agency for April 2025 to March 2026 stands interior fit-out and drywall construction, at 301 days. That value belongs to interior fit-out and drywall construction and to no other trade. It shows one thing only: how far the range extends at the upper end. What follows from it is set out in the article on time-to-fill in construction.
Two qualifications belong with every use of these figures. They are averages over twelve months; your specific position may sit well above or well below them. And they refer to registered job vacancies, that is, to the positions that were reported to the Federal Employment Agency. Neither point makes the number useless. It makes it a planning figure with a spread — and not a promise for an individual case.
The four items in your own calculation
The 183 days at skilled-worker level reported by the Federal Employment Agency are roughly six months. That time value is the multiplier. What gets multiplied you assemble yourself — in four steps, for which you need nothing but your own records.
First: the lost contribution margin. Take the order volume that was attached to an installer position on average in the past financial year and break it down to the month. Deduct materials and the directly attributable costs. What is left is the contribution margin per installer per month. Multiply it by the share of orders you had to decline or postpone because of the gap.
Second: the additional work absorbed by the existing team. The work does not disappear when the position is empty — it gets redistributed. Enter the additional hours worked by your employees, valued at the premium actually paid, and set alongside it what accumulates in time accounts and untaken leave. This item is the least conspicuous one, because it disappears into the payroll rather than appearing on a line of its own.
Third: the cost of delays. Add up what late completions triggered during the period under review: agreed contractual penalties, variations you were unable to enforce, follow-up orders that went to another contractor. Unlike the first two items, this one arises irregularly. It belongs in the total nonetheless, because it produces the peaks that break an annual plan.
Fourth: the turnover risk. A team that carries a gap permanently works under different conditions than a complete one. If someone resigns as a result, the next position opens up and the calculation starts over. That is a chain of cause and effect and is to be read as such — it says nothing about how often it occurs. Carry this item as a risk, therefore, not as an amount.
The formula in words: add the three quantifiable items together to produce a monthly amount. Multiply that monthly amount by the number of months you are assuming — with the approximation via the skilled-worker level, that is roughly six. The result is the figure that sits on one side of the ledger when you set it against the effort of filling the position. Note the fourth item beside it.
A remark on precision: this calculation will not be exact. It will be traceable. The difference shows the moment someone asks where a value came from — because then every item has a source inside your own house, and the time value has the Federal Employment Agency.
What the 2025 shortage analysis says about building electrical work
In its skilled labour shortage analysis for 2025 (Fachkräfteengpassanalyse 2025), published in May 2026, the Federal Employment Agency counts 157 shortage occupations — compared with 163 shortage occupations in 2024 and 183 shortage occupations in 2023. The report states that the number of shortage occupations has continued to fall compared with previous years and that, at 157, it was slightly below the previous year’s level.
A falling counter does not mean that the individual shortage disappears. It means that fewer occupations meet the criteria of the analysis. For a business whose occupation is still on the list, the overall figure changes nothing.
In the table of the largest shortage occupations by employment (skilled workers, top 10) in the Federal Employment Agency’s skilled labour shortage analysis for 2025, occupational sub-group 2621, building electrical occupations, is listed. The listing says no more than that: it names the occupation, it supplies no duration. We do not reproduce the associated shortage indicators here, because in the published version they are not reported in a form that supports clean individual citation.
For your calculation this listing changes little; for your expectations it changes a good deal. It documents that building electrical work is among the largest shortage occupations by employment at skilled-worker level — that is, not a niche with few positions, but one of the large groups. It does not replace the time value. Why the applicant market in this trade is so thin is covered in the article on why the market cannot fill your electrician role.
What the calculation changes for workforce planning
As soon as the amount is on the table, the question changes. It is no longer whether filling the position is worth the effort, but how long you are willing to afford leaving it open. Three steps turn that into a plan.
First: define the requirement level of the position. Does the role require completed vocational training, or can it be cut as a helper or semi-skilled activity? For helper and semi-skilled roles the Federal Employment Agency reports 156 days, for the skilled-worker level 183 days. Both values come from the same period, April 2025 to March 2026. How you cut the position therefore changes the reference figure in your calculation.
Second: work backwards. Set the date on which the person is to start in the business. From there, subtract the duration you determined in step one. The result is the day on which the search has to be running — not the day on which you start thinking about it. If the person is to be fully trained in by a fixed date, subtract the induction period as well.
Third: for candidates from abroad, settle the recognition question in advance. Whether a qualification obtained abroad has to be recognised for the intended activity determines both the route and the duration. What needs to be checked is set out in the article on electrician recognition.
Information for orientation only, not legal advice.
The real return on this calculation lies not in the amount but in the timing. A business that knows what one month of an empty installer position costs does not wait until the resignation takes effect. It starts as soon as the need is foreseeable. Structure beats chance.
Free initial consultation — we will call you back, when suits you? In 15 minutes we go through your open electrician position with you: requirement level, how the role is cut and the realistic timeline up to the start of work.
Further reading
- Electricians wanted: why the market cannot fill your role — where the gap in the applicant market comes from
- Electrician recognition: what it costs and when you need it — when the procedure is required and when it is not
- Cost of vacancy: what unfilled positions cost — the cost items explained across all sectors
- 301 days: the cost of a vacant position in construction — the same calculation for interior fit-out and drywall
- Filling helper roles: 156 days is the average — the reference figure for semi-skilled activities
Sources
- Bundesagentur für Arbeit: Vakanzzeit von Arbeitsstellen nach Anforderungsniveau in Deutschland, April 2025 bis März 2026, compiled by Statista. 2026. https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1318407/umfrage/vakanzzeit-gemeldeter-arbeitsstellen-nach-anforderungsniveau (retrieved 13.09.2026).
- Bundesagentur für Arbeit: Engpassberufe mit den längsten Vakanzzeiten, April 2025 bis März 2026, compiled by Statista. 2026. https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/420385/umfrage/engpassberufe-in-deutschland-nach-durchschnittlicher-vakanzzeit (retrieved 13.09.2026).
- Bundesagentur für Arbeit: Fachkräfteengpassanalyse 2025. Series “Berichte: Blickpunkt Arbeitsmarkt”. May 2026. https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/en/press/2026-32-specialists-remain-in-short-supply-immigration-continues-to-grow-in-importance (retrieved 13.09.2026).
