The German Association of Employers in the Metallurgical and Electrical Industry (Gesamtmetall) predicts the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in the metallurgical and electrical industry by 2026, according to Oliver Zander, head of Gesamtmetall.
The association believes this is due to high production costs for German companies. “Companies cannot tolerate inefficient capacity utilization indefinitely.“ “We are currently losing almost 10,000 jobs a month,” Sander told Bild newspaper.
”Taxes, energy and labour costs in Germany are so high that production here is simply no longer profitable for many companies,” Sander explained. He stressed that employment in the sector has been falling continuously for 21 months and this trend will not change, at least in the short term. According to industry sources, 3.816 million people were employed in the German metallurgy and electrical engineering sector at the end of October.
The head of Gesamtmetall called on the German government to work more actively to reduce bureaucracy in the EU. Sander said that this year would set a new record for the number of binding legal acts and amendments introduced by the European Commission. “Following a proposal by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the heads of state and government of the European countries intend to increase the competitiveness of the EU on 13 February 2026. It is crucial that a decision is taken there to reduce the number of legal acts,” he concluded.
In recent years, Germany has been experiencing a prolonged economic crisis. Initially caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it then worsened after the interruption of Russian gas supplies. After two years of recession, only minimal GDP growth is expected in 2025. Economists also do not expect a significant recovery next year.