Logistics particularly affected
Industry: Massive staff shortages due to Omikron
2/5/2022 4:33 am
Omicron continues to increase the number of new infections. A survey by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce shows how tense the personnel situation is in many companies. The companies expect a further tightening.
As a result of the Omikron wave, the German economy is suffering from massive staff shortages. In a cross-industry quick survey of 370 companies by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), every fourth company rated its current staff shortages as “considerable”. Another four percent even rated their understaffing as “critical” for maintaining their offers. According to the evaluation of the survey, which is available to the editorial network Germany (RND), the companies expect that the development will worsen in the next few days.
“Companies estimate the consequences of staff shortages at suppliers or other business partners to be even more serious,” warned DIHK President Peter Adrian. Companies in the health care sector and in the transport and logistics sector report the greatest staff shortages. So far, the retail and wholesale sectors see themselves less affected than the average.
DIHK: February will be “big challenge”
Of the healthcare companies, 31 percent currently report “significant” and another 16 percent even “critical, comprehensive” impacts on their services. In transport and logistics, 36 percent and prospectively 44 percent of the companies currently see “considerable” effects, as “critical” currently eight and prospectively twelve percent of transporters and logisticians assess the personnel situation.
“February will be a major challenge for companies,” DIHK President Adrian told RND. “However, it shows how important it is that politicians have not made a distinction between particularly elementary and supposedly less important companies when it comes to the corona rules on isolation and quarantine. This philosophy should also be continued in the further steps,” demanded Adrian. “Otherwise we would most likely already have major supply bottlenecks.”
Nobody can work in a laboratory if, for example, the production and transport of test tubes has to be canceled, emphasized the DIHK President. “And even a supermarket only works as long as supplies can be produced and delivered,” he added.