The metal and electrical industry (M + E) in the Oberland draws hope in the Corona crisis.
In the current survey by the associations bayme and vbm, there is talk of a recovery, the outlook is positive.
The number of employees is still falling, and many companies are running short-time working.
There are many reasons.
District - Not as usual in a "beautiful Weilheimer restaurant", but in an online conference, the employers' associations of the metal and electrical industry (M + E) of the Oberland recently drew a first cautious balance with representatives of local companies. And confidence prevailed: “We're not worried in the current year, we're well on the way,” said Dietmar Ahl, managing director of Günter Bechtold GmbH in Weilheim. Hoerbiger HR manager Florian Pape also said that the corona crisis was safe. According to him, no jobs were cut at the Schongau plant during the crisis, but rather employees are now looking for "to get back to the pre-crisis level".
On the way out of the recession, however, companies are struggling with many imponderables.
Pape, who is also a member of the board of directors of the bayme, spoke very recently about the devastating storm that last raged in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia: some of the rails and roads would no longer be available, the goods could become a problem "To bring from A to B".
Material bottlenecks are a cause for concern
In addition, there is the ongoing blatant shortage of material and preliminary products for production.
For Hoerbiger and his customers, the HR manager mentioned steel and semiconductors in particular.
Short-time work is currently not an issue at Hoerbiger: "We hope that we can get away with this with vacation and time accounts," said the HR manager.
This means that Hoerbiger is in a much better position than many other member companies of the two metal and electrical associations in Bavaria.
According to the CEO in the Oberland, Michale Ullrich, 16 percent of the member companies in the Free State are currently still on short-time work.
Employment is also currently falling further.
After the number of employees fell by 23,000 in 2020, it fell by a further 5,000 in the first four months of the current year.
Since the peak in June 2019, 30,000 jobs have been lost in the Bavarian metal and electrical industry, a total of 837,000.
Survey confirms economic recovery
But the industry has the worst behind it: “Our current economic survey confirms the economic recovery in the M + E industry in the Oberland as well,” said the CEO, referring to the 143 member companies. After all, they make up two thirds of all M + E businesses in the Oberland. 62 percent of them describe their current domestic business as good, according to Ullrich only four percent come to a negative assessment. The figures are consistent with the Bavaria-wide view. Business abroad is doing even better for local companies: 68 percent rate them as positive and 6.5 percent as bad.
And the optimism continues: According to bayme vbm, 53 percent of the domestic business are hoping for an improvement, only two percent fear a deterioration.
The situation is similar for exports: 54 percent are optimistic, only 3.4 percent are pessimistic.
Regarding the employment forecast, however, the picture in the industry is mixed, despite the optimism.
31 percent of the companies want to create additional jobs.
22 percent fear that they will have to cut jobs.
"In view of the overall slightly positive plans, we are assuming that the decline in employment will come to a standstill towards the end of the year," say the associations, which are anticipating a further decline in employment of 10,000 this year.
Bayme vbm-Oberland-Verband boss Ullrich now asked politicians for an “unleashed package” for the economy: “Without relief for labor costs, energy and taxes, neither the restart after the crisis nor the transformation to digitization can succeed and decarbonization. "
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