In the skilled trades, costs and wages are rising, orders and sales are falling. This has consequences for customers.
Consumers must prepare for even higher prices for craft services. Crafts president Jörg Dittrich told the German Press Agency that costs and wages are rising and sales are falling slightly. “I understand that there are people who ask themselves: ‘Why are craftsmen so expensive?’ We as a craft industry share this concern, because we depend on customers who can afford our services and products.”
If the services of craftsmen become unaffordable, there is a risk that services will disappear or that people will increasingly resort to illegal work, said the President of the Central Association of German Crafts. “This is neither in the interests of the crafts nor of society. We are already seeing some of this threatening development in hairdressers. The challenges for the wage-intensive sectors of the economy are still great, especially because of the rising social security contributions.” Crafts are particularly disadvantaged here. It is crucial that the burden on labor is reduced.
Concern about creeping decline
Dittrich had already said that the trade had been warning for years that contributions would get out of control if the financing of the social security systems was not fundamentally reformed.
There is visible concern in the craft sector that things are slowly going downhill. “There is a lack of reliability in political decisions and there is a lack of planning security: This is holding many craft businesses back from investing. But it is precisely private investment on a large scale that is needed to get the economy going again.”
Source: Stern
