Abroad still more popular
Every sixth company relocates jobs and production
06/05/2023 2:59 p.m
A quick poll by the Federation of German Industries revealed: There is no all-clear for Germany as an industrial location. Every sixth company is already actively relocating jobs and at least parts of production abroad.
The industry lobby in Germany is sounding the alarm because of the high costs and is demanding further relief from politicians. “16 percent of the companies surveyed are already actively relocating parts of their production and jobs abroad,” explained the President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Siegfried Russwurm. “Another 30 percent are thinking about it specifically.” This emerges from an association flash survey of medium-sized industrial companies.
The industry needs a noticeable reduction in bureaucracy and targeted tax cuts for more investment, Russwurm warned. “Politicians are responsible for improving the general conditions at the location.” The situation with prices for energy and raw materials has eased somewhat compared to 2022, but remains one of the most pressing challenges for almost two thirds of the companies surveyed. “The industrial electricity price urgently needs to be reduced reliably and permanently to a competitive level, otherwise the transformation in the industry threatens to fail,” said Russwurm.
The BDI expects the federal government to come up with a concept that can be implemented quickly and that will guarantee a secure supply of energy at internationally competitive costs in the long term. According to the BDI, around three quarters of companies complain that labor costs are too high – not least because of the serious shortage of skilled workers. Here politics must facilitate easier immigration. “Despite the reform of the Skilled Immigration Act, the main obstacles to targeted economic migration are still complicated and lengthy administrative procedures.”
According to the survey, around three quarters of the companies also complained that labor costs were too high, not least because of the serious shortage of skilled workers. According to the information, 45 percent of the companies surveyed were forced to postpone investments in ecological transformation. 37 percent complained acutely about too much bureaucracy and slow approval procedures, and 25 percent struggled with infrastructure weaknesses in Germany.