BERLIN (AP) — Job restrictions for Eastern European engineers and foreigners with a German university degree will be eased to overcome a shortage of skilled labor, the government said Wednesday.
Starting on Nov. 1, German job applicants in the fields of electronics, vehicle construction and mechanical engineering will no longer receive preferential treatment over foreign applicants, as has been the case so far.
The government had decided at a meeting last month to let more skilled foreign workers into the country.
It also plans to allow foreign students who graduate from German universities to work in the country for three years. Currently most foreign graduates must leave the country within a year after they finish university and are not eligible to apply for jobs here.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed, however, that it would be the government's priority to first ''give a chance to those people in Germany who are unemployed.''
