Labor market: Job reduction in industry: Ifo expects more unemployed people

The prospects for the job market are bad. The employment barometer raised by the Munich IFO Institute continued to cloud in March. The deterioration was low with 0.3 points, but the value of 92.7 has been the second worst since the high phase of Corona pandemic, as can be seen from the figures of the economic researchers. “The situation on the labor market remains difficult,” says Klaus Wohlrabe’s IFO surveys. “Unemployment will continue to rise slightly.”

In particular, industry has been breaking down jobs for almost two years. Hardly any company in this economic area is spared. In the area of ​​industry, the barometer is currently 21.7 points. It fits that a number of large employers have recently announced large job reduction programs, including VW, Siemens, Audi, Bosch or the car supplier ZF Friedrichshafen.

The mood with minus 12.9 points is also bad in stores, but at least there is an upward trend here. In the service sector, the value has fallen to minus 2.8. The employers have also become more careful here. On the construction, the index is also in minus, but only 1.8 points and a more positive trend recently.

The values ​​for the sectors are not directly comparable to the entire index. During the overall index to the year 2015, the sectoral values ​​show the balance between companies that want to build jobs and reduce the jobs. A value below zero means that more companies are reducing than building.

How bad the current situation is also shows a look at the long time series of the Ifo Institute. If you ignore the three worst months of the Corona crisis from April to June 2020 and December 2024, you have to go back to 2009 to find lower values ​​for the overall index.