The German economy is currently not moving. However, this has so far left no mark on employment in industry.
Despite the economic downturn, many industrial companies in Germany employed more people last year. The number of employees in the manufacturing industry rose slightly by 1.1 percent on average over the year, or 62,000 compared to the previous year, as the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced.
At the end of December 2023, almost 5.6 million people worked in companies with 50 or more employees. That was 0.5 percent more than in the same month last year.
However, the scientific director of the Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research (IMK) of the Hans Böckler Foundation, Sebastian Dullien, pointed out that employment in the manufacturing sector is currently still noticeably below the pre-Corona level of 2018/2019. “The years in which German industry was a job and growth engine for the German economy are over for the time being.” In particular, the energy price shock following the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine continues to have an impact.
According to statisticians, all major manufacturing sectors contributed to the increase in employment on average in 2023 – with the exception of the energy-intensive chemical industry, which recorded a decline of 1.1 percent, and the rubber and plastics industry (minus 0.8 percent). . The highest increase in the number of employees was recorded at 5.4 percent in the production of data processing equipment, electronic and optical products.
The German economy slipped into a slight recession last year. The gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.3 percent compared to the previous year, adjusted for prices. The prospects for the current year had recently deteriorated. The federal government only expects mini-growth of 0.2 percent.
Source: Stern
