Germany: Four out of ten companies want to cut jobs next year

According to a survey by the German Economic Institute (IW), four out of ten companies want to cut jobs next year because of the weakening economy. As the “Handelsblatt” reported in its Thursday edition, citing the study by the employer-related institute, 38 percent of the more than 2,000 companies surveyed are planning to reduce their workforce. The reason is the gloomy economic situation.

According to the survey, 40 percent of companies expect worse business prospects in 2025, and a fifth are optimistic about the new year. Only 23 percent of companies are planning more investments, while 40 percent are expecting a decline. The IW concluded that no “signals of an economic turnaround” could be derived from the survey. Instead, the German economy will remain “in economic immobility for another year.”

As the IW analysis goes on to say, this also has consequences for the labor market. The job growth in Germany that has been going on since 2005 “has come to an end”. This applies above all to industry – it is affected by a structural crisis, resulting in “permanent job losses”.

In the past few weeks, a number of large industrial companies have announced that they want to massively cut jobs in this country in the coming years. These include the car manufacturers VW and Ford, the car suppliers Bosch and ZF and the steel manufacturer Thyssenkrupp.