Car industry with biggest decline in over a decade

According to today's announcement by the Federal Statistical Office, the crisis-stricken automotive industry employed around 48,700 fewer people at the end of the third quarter than in the same period last year. This corresponds to a decline of 6.3 percent - the sharpest drop among the major industrial sectors with more than 200,000 employees.

With a total of 721,400 employees, the automotive industry reached its lowest level since mid-2011. Suppliers in particular have been affected by job losses, significantly more than the vehicle manufacturers themselves.

Industry loses more than 120,000 jobs in total

At the end of the third quarter, around 5.43 million people were employed across all industrial sectors - a drop of 120,300 employees or 2.2 percent within a year.

The food industry is an exception: it is the only major sector with employment growth and recorded an increase of 1.8 percent to 510,500 employees.

Sebastian Dullien, Scientific Director of the Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research (IMK) at the Hans Böckler Foundation, assesses the situation. The figures clearly show "where the trouble spots are in German industry". At the same time, he emphasizes: "It is not yet too late to save the majority of jobs in industry."

Large-scale job cuts in other sectors

Jobs are also being lost in many areas outside the automotive industry. Data from the Federal Statistical Office paints the following picture:

• Mechanical engineering: down 2.2 percent to around 934,200 employees
  
  
• Chemical industry: down 1.2 percent to 323,600 employees
  
  
• Manufacture of electrical equipment: down 0.4 percent to 387,500 employees
  
  
• Metal production and processing: particularly significant decline of 5.4 percent
  
  
• Manufacture of data processing equipment, electronic and optical products: down 3.0 percent

Call for a new industrial policy

Against the backdrop of international economic policy tensions, Dullien is also calling for a strategic reorientation: Germany needs "a holistic industrial policy in view of the aggressive economic policy of the USA and China". He goes on to say: "Germany should encourage the EU to define key sectors itself and use the single market to promote European production in these sectors."