The EBM Papst fan company secures employee loyalty early. It offers financial aid to students and even gives promotional talks in schools. The Künzelsau job center is familiar with the companies' difficulties but, with only 3 percent unemployment in the region, can't do much to help. Jürgen Schneider reports on a German state of full employment.

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Steffen Kammleiter cannot do his job without electricity. Kammleiter is an electrical engineer who tests components for ventilation systems. He started work with the mechanical engineering company EBM-Papst a year ago. His knowledge as an electronics expert is in huge demand: "We get a lot of calls from other companies who are looking for staff, or headhunters calling on behalf of other companies. It varies, depending on the type and size of the company that is looking for engineers. Yes, it‘s a good feeling on the one hand it shows I chose the right course to study for the right career. But on the other hand I think it's a situation you have to live with when you are employed as an engineer."

It's a situation Kammleiter can easily live with. If he gets fed up with his job he can easily find a new one. EBM-Papst desperately needs twenty more engineers. Business is booming. The company makes air conditioning units and computer cooling systems, and they are in huge demand the world over. A new factory is already under construction. But if the company wants to expand it needs more staff.

Michael Köster is also profiting from the demand. The 26 year old joined the company a few weeks ago. He completed part of his electrical engineering course here: "We spent a lot of time at the company during the practical part of the course. We did our thesis here, and that made us aware of the company." The company could do with more people like Köster – but it isn't exactly inundated with job applications.

So it is up to the boss to go out and recruit new staff members from a very early age: "Every year we invite pupils in their first three years at school to join us for a week. They learn about drilling and milling and sawing and so on ... they get to assemble small items. Last year they built a bird's house from wood. They were able to take it home with them and they had a whale of a time."

But right now the engineers of the future have other interests. The small town of Künzelsau has 15 thousand inhabitants and 12 thousand jobs. The local job centre has hardly any applicants left on its books. Elmar Zeller from the labour office in Künzelsau: "Unemployment figures have fallen dramatically. Let me show you this. This line shows the reduction in unemployment since the start of the year. It's quite impressive and job vacancies are also on the increase, so I reckon that in the next 1 to 2 months the number of job vacancies will be higher than the number of unemployed. I haven't seen that in 30 years."

So EBM has to make sure it brings in new staff members at an early stage and train them on site... These apprentices can later look forward to careers as engineers with the company. Just like Steffen Kammleiter... he got his first job experience here, too.