Only 1.3 percent of employees
The number of short-time workers fell significantly in April
05/06/2022 11:51 am
Lockdown, home office and short-time work: The corona virus has driven many people into insecure employment. With the end of numerous measures to contain the pandemic, the number of short-time workers has also fallen sharply.
According to a company survey by the IFO Institute, the number of short-time workers fell sharply in April due to the relaxation of the corona virus. A total of 426,000 people were on short-time work, after a seasonally adjusted 696,000 in March, according to the Munich research institute. This was 1.3 percent of the workforce, after 2.1 percent previously. Short-time work had already fallen in March compared to February.
“The most significant declines were again in the contact-intensive industries, which continue to recover from Corona,” explained IFO expert Stefan Sauer, naming the hospitality industry in particular. There, the number of people on short-time work fell from 196,000 to 90,000 most recently, which was a drop from 18.4 to 8.5 percent of the workforce.
There were also declines in retail, transport and manufacturing, including the auto industry. Before the corona pandemic, the number of short-time workers was 134,000 in February 2020, in March 2020 it had jumped to 2.6 million and in April 2020 it had reached the record value of six million, according to the institute. The previous high during the global financial and economic crisis was in spring 2009 at 1.5 million short-time workers.