A new business survey of almost 9,000 German corporations conducted by the Munich-based Ifo Institute found Germany’s shortage of qualified workers is getting worse.

According to the poll, which was released Wednesday, more than 43% of the corporations surveyed reported they could not find enough skilled employees in July. It was an increase over April’s reading of 42%. In July of 2022, the survey had registered a reading close to an all-time high of 50%.

Ifo expert Stefan Sauer said, “Despite a sluggish economy, many companies are still desperately searching for suitable employees.”

The survey found that the service sector was particularly hard-hit, with over 75% of the legal and accounting firms reporting they could not find the applicants they were seeking. Almost two-thirds of businesses in transportation, architecture, and engineering reported that they cannot find enough qualified workers, which marked a new high for those sectors.

The Ifo Institute found that over 43% of IT equipment manufacturers and roughly 41% of machinery and equipment makers surveyed said they were affected by the shortage of qualified workers. Manufacturing figures overall were only slightly improved, at just below 35%.

As the German economy has labored under the effects of the loss of cheap Russian pipeline gas to fuel their economy, raging inflation has driven the Eurozone’s largest economy into recession in the first three months of 2023.

The Ifo Institute reported that business sentiment worsened in June, noting that as domestic demand and exporters’ expectations both declined, the nation was increasingly facing the prospect of a longer downturn. Analyst expectations are for the German economy to to shrink by 0.3% in 2023, with a rebound only coming in 2024.