German industry has cut over 100,000 jobs within a year — around 45,400 of them in the automotive industry alone, writes Junge Freiheit, citing new data from consulting firm EY.
Metal and textile industries also experienced significant declines, while the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors were barely affected, the paper notes.
According to EY’s report, the number of employees in the manufacturing sector fell to 5.46 million by the end of March, a decrease of 1.8 percent year-over-year.
For automobile makers, nearly 6 percent of jobs were lost, and the number of employees fell to 734,000.
Since 2019, job losses in the manufacturing sector have totaled 217,000 positions, a decrease of 3.8 percent. EY lists high energy and personnel costs, weak demand in Europe, aggressive competition from China, and uncertainty in the U.S. market as reasons behind the weakness.
At the same time, Germany is suffering from structural change and excessive bureaucracy, it notes.
“Companies are under enormous pressure,” warns EY manager Jan Brorhilker. He expects another 70,000 industrial jobs to be lost by the end of the year. Mechanical and automotive engineering are particularly affected, with recent sales data indicating industrial sales have continued to decline.
Despite this development, EY does not see widespread deindustrialization. In a long-term comparison, industrial employment is still slightly above the 2014 level, according to the Federal Statistics Office.
But there is a growing chorus of criticism against the government’s course of action, or lack thereof. The President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), Hildegard Müller, has said, “Competitiveness and attractiveness as a location must be the guiding principles of the new federal government.”
Junge Freiheit notes that lower costs, less regulation, and a stronger domestic economy are the only things that can bring a much-needed turnaround to Germany. Without these, the “backbone of the German economy” may be lost.
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