[knbknb]

I am German. Indeed the German population is quite old, and employers prefer young workers. I think other factors (or overlooked groups) to be considered are:

Many family men and women in prime working age are not willing to move. The housing market is stressed (rents are exploding everywhere). Often Middle-Aged Germans must do caretaking work for old parents, and cannot move for this reason.

Many non-family-starting Germans (from all age groups) are living in single-person households. Although if they are unemployed and able to move where the work is, many don't. Because of these people are prosperous, or are prosperous enough for a while. And they often have skills from previous careers. They just not need to take any unrelated job. So they can afford to wait and choose.

These highly skilled people in demand have enough wealth (savings and inherited wealth) and even enough income to get along, even though they _could_ make more money elsewhere. So they are also not on the job market.

Even if they did a retraining and pivoting, then many employers do not want to hire them permanently or not at all. Temporary or precarious jobs are the increasingly common here, no end in sight.