The employers’ association Total metal expects up to 150,000 jobs to be lost in the metal and electrical industries this year. “We are in the middle of deindustrialization and the prospects are very bleak. The situation is really dramatic,” Gesamtmetall managing director Oliver Zander told the newspapers of the Funke media group. His industry is “in the greatest crisis since the founding of the Federal Republic”.
Zander took stock of the job losses in the industry. “We have been in a recession for two years. We have already lost 270,000 jobs since 2018,” he told the newspapers. “We fell below 3.8 million employees in our industry last month. We last had that in 2015.”
“Too high costs and too much bureaucracy”
Like many association representatives, Zander cites high costs for companies in Germany as the reasons. “In Germany we have energy costs that are too high, corporate taxes that are too high, social security contributions that are too high and too much bureaucracy.”
When reducing the bureaucracy a systematic approach is missing. “We are more systematic in combating animal diseases than in reducing bureaucracy,” said Zander. “Of course we also have to reduce bureaucrats” – there are too many staff in public administrations, which also puts a strain on their budgets.
Several large orders from the Defense sector had ensured a significant increase in orders in the metal and electrical industries in the last quarter of 2025, Gesamtmetall announced a month ago. Adjusted for the mostly state-financed defense contracts, the order situation is still in the basement.