The turnover of medium and large industrial enterprises in Germany fell by about 4% last year, with the crisis primarily affecting the automotive, metal and electrical industries, the Handelsblatt newspaper reports, citing a study by the consulting company Ernst & Young.
“The turnover of all 22,300 German industrial enterprises employing at least 50 people fell by 83.6 billion euros to 2.1 trillion euros in 2024 compared to the previous year. This was a decrease of 3.8%. The development of key industries with a high level of employment was particularly poor: turnover in the automotive industry fell by 5%, in the metallurgical industry by 5.1%, and in electrical engineering enterprises by 7.5%,” the article says.
The unprofitability of enterprises leads to job cuts. About 70 thousand (1.2%) of the approximately 5.5 million employees of German industrial companies were laid off last year, the newspaper writes. Since 2019, the number of people employed in industry has decreased by more than 140 thousand. At the same time, the negative consequences of the industrial crisis for the labor market will only intensify.
