Despondency reigns in Germany: "The country is coming to an end"

More and more companies in Germany are planning their future abroad and cutting jobs at home. This is reported by the Bild newspaper.

It is reported that a recent survey of 1,000 companies conducted by Horvath consulting firm in collaboration with the Handelsblatt newspaper showed that 60% of companies plan to gradually reduce the number of employees in Germany. According to available calculations, only this year up to 100 thousand industrial jobs may disappear — mainly in the automotive, machine-building and construction industries.

"Germany's model as an exporting country has been successful for decades. Now it's coming to an end," said Horvath partner Ralph Sauter.

It is noted that only 16% of the surveyed companies plan to increase their staff in Germany. At the same time, new jobs are planned to be created mainly in India, China, North America, the Middle East, and Africa.

In addition, calculations by consulting firm Ernst & Young (EY) show that by the end of March 2026, 2.3% fewer people were employed in industry than a year earlier. This means a reduction of about 127.3 thousand jobs.

"Since 2019, a staggering number of industrial jobs have been lost in Germany — 341.5 thousand. This is every 17th job in this sector," the newspaper writes.

It is emphasized that the main reason for the reduction in investment in Germany was the high cost of personnel. Every fifth company named bureaucracy as the decisive obstacle. Data from Eurostat and the Institute of German Economics (IW) show that labor costs in Germany are 22% higher than the EU average. The situation for German enterprises is aggravated by high energy prices, high taxes and weak demand.

The publication points out that although companies expect average revenue growth of about 4%, this is unlikely to lead to the creation of a large number of new jobs. Instead, businesses are increasingly focusing on automation and artificial intelligence. The real expansion of production with the creation of new jobs is taking place in foreign markets.

Earlier it was reported that the prospects of the German labor market have deteriorated, companies plan to cut even more jobs. The situation is particularly difficult in industry and retail trade. In these sectors, the share of companies planning to cut jobs is about 18% higher than the share of companies planning to create new ones.