Germany’s Manufacturing Sector: No End in Sight for Employment Losses
Updated employment data show that Germany’s manufacturing sector has lost jobs for 24 consecutive months
Today, the Federal Statistical Office updated the monthly employment data for the manufacturing sector.
Employment in manufacturing in March 2026 was 127,252 lower than in March 2025, a decline of 2.3%. Compared with March 2022 — the month immediately following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 — the manufacturing sector has lost 148,855 jobs (-2.7%).
Employment in manufacturing has declined continuously since April 2024, marking 24 consecutive months of job losses. Moreover, the pace of the decline has accelerated over this period.
The charts below show employment losses in four of Germany’s best-known industries — chemicals, metals, machinery, and automobiles — measured as the decline from each industry’s employment peak to the most recent month in the 2019–2026 period.
