ifo Institute: Number of Short-Time Workers Falls in Germany – but Not Everywhere
The number of short-time workers in Germany fell to 5.6 million in July. In June it was 6.7 million, in May 7.3 million. This is the finding of exclusive calculations and estimates by the ifo Institute based on its Business Survey. Expressed as a share of all employees subject to social insurance contributions, short-time work shrank from 20 to 17 percent. “The decline has accelerated overall, but in some sectors short-time work is actually increasing,” says ifo labor market expert Sebastian Link.k.
According to ifo’s estimates, the number of short-time workers in industry fell only slightly from 2.3 million to 2.1 million people, or from 33 percent to 30 percent of the workforce. For instance, an estimated 509,000 people in the metal industry were still on short-time work in July, compared with 542,000 in June. In other words, the share of all metal industry employees affected by short-time work decreased from 48 percent to 45 percent. In the automotive sector, the number slipped from 516,000 to 423,000, meaning the share declined from 46 percent to 38 percent. By contrast, the number of short-time workers in mechanical engineering rose further from 354,000 to 378,000, or from 33 percent to 35 percent of all employees in that sector. In the electrical industry, 271,000 people are now on short-time work instead of June’s 260,000, so the share was 34 percent in July, 1 percent more than in June.
Short-time work in the service sector declined much more sharply. In the hospitality industry, the number of short-time workers fell further from 672,000 to 465,000 – albeit still 42 percent of the total workforce. The share in June was 61 percent, down from 72 percent in May. In transportation and storage, the number declined from 308,000 to 256,000, or from 17 percent to 14 percent. In administrative and support service activities, the number decreased from 672,000 to 603,000, or from 29 percent to 26 percent.
The number of short-time workers in trade plunged sharply again, from 963,000 to 637,000. In retail, the number shrank from 417,000 to 240,000 – a decrease from 17 percent to 10 percent. In wholesale, the number fell from 331,000 to 257,000, or from 24 percent to 18 percent. In the automotive trade, there were 140,000 short time workers in July after 215,000 in June, which equates to a fall from 32 percent to 21 percent.
