In Germany, industrial jobs continue to be lost. The automotive industry has laid off more than 50,000 people within a year

The latest industrial barometer shows that due to the economic downturn, jobs in Germany's industrial sector continue to be lost. As of June 30 this year, the German automotive industry has lost approximately 51,500 jobs within a year, becoming a major area affected by layoffs in the industrial sector.

China News Service, citing data released on Tuesday (August 26), said that as of June 30, the overall number of employed people in Germany's industrial sector decreased by 2.1% year-on-year, with a total of about 114,000 jobs cut within a year. Among them, the automotive industry cut approximately 51,500 jobs within a year. This means that for every two jobs lost in German industry, approximately one comes from the automotive sector.

The continuous decline in sales volume confirms the operational pressure on the German industry. Data shows that Germany's industrial sales only slightly declined by 0.2% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, but the year-on-year decline significantly expanded to 2.1% in the second quarter.

Analysis suggests that weak exports are the main cause of this situation: Affected by the US tariff policy, Germany's exports to the US decreased by 2.1% month-on-month in June, reaching 11.8 billion euros. This is the third consecutive decline in this data and the lowest level since February 2022, directly dragging down German industrial enterprises' commodity exports by 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter.

"The sharp decline in exports to the US has recently severely impacted German industry, and there are no signs of improvement at present," said Broschilk, managing partner of Ernst & Young. He pointed out that the high import tariffs have pushed up the prices of German products in the US market, and this factor may lead to a further decline in German sales in the US in the future.

Broschilk pointed out that German automotive groups and parts suppliers are responding to the industry's predicament through austerity policies. The pressure of a significant decline in sales and a sluggish overseas market has made large-scale layoffs an inevitable choice. Layoffs are particularly evident in Germany, where management, administrative and R&D functional departments are concentrated.

Broschilk judges that there are no signs of an end to the wave of layoffs in Germany's industrial sector at present. Some large industrial enterprises are currently implementing cost-cutting and restructuring plans, and the impact of such layoff measures on employment data usually has a lag. Therefore, it is expected that the number of jobs in the German industrial sector will further decrease from this year to next year.