The economy Fewer jobs in German industry
The economic downturn in Germany is taking its toll. The number of employees is falling in almost all sectors of the manufacturing industry. But there are also rays of hope.
02.04.2025, 09:47
SDA
The economic downturn is causing the number of jobs in German industry to shrink. Almost all major sectors in the manufacturing industry recorded falling employment figures last year, according to a survey by the Federal Statistical Office.
At the end of 2024, a total of around 5.5 million people were employed in companies with at least 50 employees. According to the Wiesbaden-based statisticians, this was 68,000 or 1.2 percent fewer than a year earlier.
Falling figures almost across the board
There were declines in almost all major sectors of the manufacturing industry: manufacturers of electrical equipment (minus 3.6 percent) and metal products (minus 2.9 percent) recorded an above-average drop.
In the plastics industry and the automotive industry, the number of employees fell by 2.4% each. Mechanical engineering, the sector with the highest number of employees in Germany, had 948,000 employees at the end of last year, 1.2% fewer than a year earlier.
However, there were also rays of hope: in the repair and installation of machinery and equipment sector, the number of employees at the end of the year was 2.7% higher than the previous year. The food industry also recorded an increase of 1.8 percent.
