Germany: Coronavirus pandemic weighs on the job market

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Europe's largest economy will be cut in many sectors, says the German Institute for Economic Studies, Ifo, based in Munich.

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In industry, the automotive and aeronautical sectors pay the heaviest price. Some 40% of German companies cut jobs in April due to the fall in industrial orders and exports.

The service sector is also hit hard. Almost 50% of restaurants, hotels and travel agencies are laying off workers, suffocated by the fall in activity linked to containment measures.

Worrisome figures that herald a wave of bankruptcies, according to the Institute, for which Germany is going through its most difficult period since reunification in 1990.

Less than a third (29.2%) of German companies believe that they could survive for a maximum of three months in the event of prolonged restrictions on their activity linked to measures to combat the epidemic of new coronavirus, according to the German Institute for Economic Studies Ifo.

More than half of German companies, or 52.7% of the companies questioned by Ifo, believe that they can last six months in this event.

"  These are disturbing figures that suggest that a wave of bankruptcies is awaiting us  ," said Klaus Wohlrabe, economist at Ifo. The shock to the German economy will be severe. The government forecasts a 2% drop in growth in the first quarter and more than 10% in the second quarter.

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• Germany
• Employment and Work
• Coronavirus