The market of services for the person - Germany

1.1 Scope of the study

Person-related services include a bunch of services provided to assist people and to perform everyday tasks to make people's lives easier. Various circumstances may justify the need for person-related services: for example, people could need assistance because of age or disability; or only because some people don't have enough time. Here's a list of the most demanded person-related services :

• Everyday household support services,
• Child care / The preparation of meals, the completion of shopping, and delivery,
• Removal services,
• Gardening and home improvement services,
• Teaching services,
• ...

The personal services market is experiencing strong growth on the European scale, driven by the general aging of the population. In Germany, more than 18 million people are at least 65 years old, and in the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, about 14 million are falling into this category. These numbers will continue to rise in the upcoming years, and this phenomenon will undoubtedly result in a higher demand for personal services. Still, the key factor of this market remains the lacking workforce, nonetheless, platforms have successfully played a major role in recent years to link customers and service providers. It has been achieved thanks to the digitalization of the hiring process, and it has led to a significant increase in service supply. 

In Germany, there are a large number of providers of private-related services. However, this is offset by an untapped demand potential amounting to 40% of German private households. The official number of households, providing person-referred services lies at only 12%. Nevertheless, this number is overlooked, because most of person-related employees work undeclared. According to polls and statistics, around 80% of domestic helpers are working illegally. An upward trend can be observed in digital personal services, especially in metropolitan areas in Germany.