German Industry Sheds 341,000 Jobs Since 2019
The international auditing and consulting firm published its "Q1 2026 Industry Barometer," which assessed the performance of industrial companies during the first quarter of 2026.
The report found that employment across German industrial firms fell by 2.3% year-on-year in the first quarter, equivalent to 127,300 jobs lost compared with the same period in 2025.
Since 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global economies, Germany's industrial sector has eliminated approximately 341,500 positions.
The decline represents more than 6% of the sector's workforce, meaning roughly one out of every 17 industrial jobs has disappeared during that period.
The automotive industry recorded the sharpest employment losses in absolute terms. The sector cut 32,000 jobs over the past year alone, bringing total losses since 2019 to about 125,800 positions.
Those figures indicate that nearly one in seven jobs in Germany's automotive industry has been lost over the past seven years.
The textile industry suffered the steepest proportional decline, with employment shrinking by 22% since 2019. The metal sector also experienced significant contraction, with its workforce dropping 15% over the same period.
Only two industries bucked the broader downward trend. Employment in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector increased by 3%, while the electrical industry expanded its workforce by 2% compared with 2019 levels.
Despite ongoing job cuts, German industry showed modest signs of recovery on the revenue front. Sales rose 1.7% in the first quarter from a year earlier, ending a streak of 10 consecutive quarters of declining revenues.
The sector last recorded revenue growth in the second quarter of 2023.
According to EY analysts, weak sales performance in previous years remains the primary driver behind the current wave of workforce reductions.
However, the report cautioned that it remains unclear whether the first-quarter improvement marks the beginning of a sustained recovery.
Much of the revenue growth was fueled by the metal industry, which reported a 28% increase in exports and an 18% rise in total sales.
The automotive sector posted a modest 2.1% gain in revenue, while sales in the electrical industry increased by 1.4%.
Not all sectors benefited from the rebound. The paper industry recorded a 6% decline in sales, while the textile sector suffered an even steeper drop of 8%.
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