Another 70,000 on the brink
German industry is reducing 100,000 jobs in one year
German industry is doing badly: According to an analysis, 100,000 jobs were dismantled within a year. And that could have been the beginning.
The ongoing economic crisis cost German industry more than 100,000 jobs within a year. The hardest hit the car industry, shows an analysis of the auditing and consulting company EY, which is available to the German Press Agency. There alone around 45,400 jobs were dismantled there.
At the end of the first quarter, German industry employed 5.46 million people – 1.8 percent or 101,000 fewer than a year earlier, the study said that the Federal Statistical Office has been based on data. Since the pre-Corona year 2019, the number of employees dropped by 217,000, a decline of 3.8 percent. In 2018 there was still a record with around 5.7 million industrial workers.
Industrial companies are under pressure, says Jan Brorhilker, Managing Partner at EY. “Aggressive competitors from China, for example, press prices, important sales markets weaken, in Europe the demand is stagnating at a low level, behind the entire US market there is a big question mark. At the same time, companies are fighting with high costs-for example for energy and personnel.”
Reduction of another 70,000 jobs expected
The turnover of German industry had decreased slightly after a break -in 2024 at the beginning of the year. An end to job cuts is not yet in sight, says Brorhilker. He expects at least 70,000 other industrial jobs to be eliminated by the end of the year. Companies have initiated savings programs, especially in mechanical and autobau. “For the time being, we will hear a lot of bad news before it goes up again.”
Almost six percent of the jobs were lost in a year in the car industry, which is fighting with a sales lull, competition from China and the change to e-mobility. Employment fell to around 734,000 people at the end of March. Even in metal production and textile industry, employment fell significantly with over four percent. However, hardly any jobs fell away in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry (-0.3 percent).
Industrial workplaces grown in the long term
The crisis of German industry has long since sparked a debate about Germany – critics speak of de -industrialization. In long -term comparison, however, employment in industry has grown: at the end of 2024, according to the Federal Statistical Office, it was 3.5 percent or 185,000 people higher than in 2014.
Ey manager Brorhilker says: “The industrial location Germany has often been dead-and has repeatedly proven to be remarkably resistant thanks to a very strong substance.” However, the conditions would have to improve: in addition to lower costs and less bureaucracy, it is necessary to strengthen internal demand in order to make the economy less export -dependent. Here the Federal Government’s billion-dollar investment package can give impulses.
Car industry demands reforms
The association of the automotive industry (VDA) also sees politics as a duty. The pressure to act is high, because in recent years the competitiveness of Germany has been eroded, says VDA President Hildegard Müller. “Competitiveness and location attractiveness must therefore be the lead motif of the new federal government. The fact is: These factors decide where and to what extent it is invested – and thus also about where the corresponding future jobs arise.”
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Source: Stern
