Germany saw a drastic drop in employees in its manufacturing sector last year, falling by 120,000 positions in 2024, according to the Federal Employment Agency (BA).
Approximately 6.67 million people worked in the sector in January, compared to 6.79 million just a year earlier, with small and medium-sized companies seeing the sharpest drop in employee numbers.
The decline has been relentless, with the Federal Employment Agency stating that the number of employees has been falling every month since August 2023. With Germany’s economy under its left-liberal government greatly struggling, the manufacturing sector was one of the hardest hit.
“The number of employees in the manufacturing sector also fell more sharply during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and as a result of the 2009 financial crisis,” the employment agency stated.
The right, in particular the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has long gone on the attack over Germany’s rapid deindustrialization under a government led by the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens. The party’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz the “chancellor of decline” last year.
The data also shows that the number of people registering as unemployed in the industrial sector was “significantly higher” in 2024 than in previous years, amounting to 285,000 people. However, 162,000 more people started jobs compared to the previous year.
“Overall, the risk of becoming unemployed in the manufacturing sector remains lower than in other sectors,” the Federal Employment Agency stated.
There are also some areas where there are worker shortages, including specialists for electrical and mechanical engineering.
The employers’ association Gesamtmetall said the decline in jobs was “alarming” and called for a “change of policy,” according to a report from Welt. The association called for changes to the electricity tax, the abolition of the solidarity charges, and a lower corporate tax rate.
Germany has historically been known as an industrial powerhouse, and even as the United States hollowed out its manufacturing sector and offshored millions of jobs, Germany managed to retain an incredible amount of its industrial base.
Critics say that Germany’s government has pursued a “green” policy that has led to overregulation, soaring energy costs, and a flight of capital. In addition, the loss of cheap energy from Russia, which the AfD and the left-wing BSW argue is a self-inflicted wound that should be immediately reversed, has made German industry less competitive, particularly energy-intensive industries such as chemical production.