Employees

Employees

As at December 31, 2025, Fraunhofer had 30,898 employees. This represents a 3.1 percent decrease in headcount (979 individuals) since the previous year. The number of research, technical and administrative (RTA) staff dropped by 1.4 percent (341 individuals). 2025 also saw the number of research staff decrease by 304 or 2.3 percent year on year. Based on the new classification of student employees (see note to the chart), the number of students was down 8.6 percent (611 students) on the previous year.

As of December 31, 2025, 548 individuals were undergoing vocational training at Fraunhofer. This represents a decrease of 27 trainees (4.7 percent) compared with the previous year. The biggest absolute decline was noted in vocational training programs leading to a recognized chamber qualification (19 individuals or 3.8 percent). However, the biggest decline by percentage was recorded in the cooperative study programs that did not lead to a recognized chamber qualification. As of December 31, 2025, 57 people were employed in these programs, down 9 (13.6 percent) from the previous year.

Note on the chart Since mid-2024, Fraunhofer has been gradually converting employment contracts for students not involved in scientific work into student employee contracts under the German Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Public Service (Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst, TVöD). They were originally classified as RTA staff. However, they have now been recategorized as students with retroactive effect from the end of 2024 in order to provide consistent time series for RTA staff and students. The figures originally reported for 2024 are presented in gray and in parentheses (255 student employees counted as RTA staff, now classified as students).