The Head of the Metal Employers Association Sounds the Alarm: Stefan Wolf Predicts Further Job Losses in the Metal and Electrical Industry.
According to the World, the President of the Gesamtmetall Association stated that the industry will lose even more jobs in the next five years. He pointed out that the industry has already been experiencing a decline in job numbers for the past ten months, with an average order fulfillment of only 75 percent. This, he emphasized, means that the industry cannot retain its current workforce, as the revenue is not sufficient to support it. Currently, the metal and electrical industry employs around 3.91 million workers, and the industry must focus on cost-cutting measures to stay afloat.
Wolf also highlighted the high non-wage labor costs as a major issue, in addition to the bureaucratic red tape. He called for the abolition of unnecessary laws, such as the Supply Chain Act and the General Data Protection Regulation, which he claimed are a significant burden on the industry, with a total of 70 billion euros spent on bureaucracy in the German industry.
Wolf also emphasized the need for a corporate tax reform, lower network charges, and a cap on social security contributions at 40 percent, which he believes should have been implemented a long time ago. He expressed skepticism about the SPD and the “ideologically driven” Greens being able to implement these reforms, instead pinning his hopes on the CDU and FDP. He also warned against the AfD, stating that if a new coalition fails to bring about a policy change that gets the industry back on track, he expects the AfD to gain extreme popularity, possibly with 30 or 35 percent of the vote in the next election.
It is worth noting that Wolf’s statement seems to have forgotten the role of the CDU and SPD in the 2011 decision to exit the nuclear energy sector, which had a significant impact on the German economy.