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Waitress in Würzburg: The number of short-time workers in the hospitality industry is falling significantly
Photo: Ralph Peters / imago images / Ralph Peters
With the end of many corona requirements, the number of short-time workers in Germany will fall to the lowest level since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to the Ifo Institute.
In July, 1.06 million people were still affected, compared to 1.39 million in the previous month, the Munich researchers said.
This is the lowest number since the beginning of the Corona crisis in February 2020.
According to the information, 3.1 percent of the dependent employees were on short-time work, after 4.1 percent in the previous month.
"Short-time working again fell sharply, especially in the sectors with corona easing," said Ifo survey expert Stefan Sauer.
In the hospitality industry, for example, the number of people on short-time work fell noticeably from 295,000 to 183,000 or 17.2 percent of the workforce.
In retail it fell from 92,600 to 41,700 (1.7 percent).
"In industry, however, we are seeing the first effects of the bottlenecks in preliminary products and raw materials on the extent of short-time work," continues Sauer.
In the auto industry, for example, the number of short-time workers went against the trend, from 14,500 to 32,100, which corresponds to 3.4 percent of the workforce.
Overall, the proportion of short-time workers in industry rose from 3.1 to 3.6 percent
The Ifo Institute bases its surveys on its monthly business survey of thousands of companies.
In addition, data from the Federal Employment Agency are evaluated.
Biggest increase in orders in ten months
There was also a positive development in incoming orders from industry.
The strong domestic demand in June led to the largest increase in orders in ten months.
The companies collected 4.1 percent more orders than in the previous month, announced the Federal Ministry of Economics.
This is the biggest increase since August 2020.
In May, orders had fallen by 3.2 percent and thus more strongly than in more than a year.
"All in all, incoming orders are continuing their upward trend that has existed since the beginning of the year after a brief interruption in May," said the ministry.
Measured on February 2020, the month before the start of the restrictions in the wake of the corona pandemic, the orders are now 11.2 percent higher.
Compared to June 2020, which was significantly affected by the pandemic, they increased by 26.2 percent.
Despite delivery bottlenecks and the smoldering corona crisis, the German economy is now back on a growth path.
With the end of the lockdown, gross domestic product rose by 1.5 percent in the spring compared to the previous quarter, after having fallen by 2.1 percent at the beginning of the year.
The economy could return to its pre-crisis level as early as the summer.
dab / Reuters / dpa