Future Report for the business location of the district of Böblingen

For many years now, the district of Böblingen (situated in the Stuttgart Region) is one of the economically strongest areas in Germany. The extraordinary concentration on the automotive industry - that counts for no less than one quarter (2012: 24.1%) of the locally employed workers - may pose cyclical and structural risks. Against this background, the project at hand deals with questions of the attractiveness of the district for those economic sectors that are normally not too volatile and have a great growth potential at the same time.

The project also covers a second topic: As in other German areas, there are strong indications of a shortage of skilled labor in Böblingen. If no decisive measures are set up in the next years, a higher lack of skilled employees has to be expected which does not only refer to academics but also to vocational qualified. For this reason, options of mobilization of the currently unused, locally given potential workforce and making the business and residential location of the district of Böblingen for immigrants from home and abroad more attractive are discussed in the framework of this project.