Tuesday March 30th 2021
Retail remains an exception
Companies are looking for more staff again
During the pandemic, companies are sending employees on short-time work, while others are forced to lay off because of the poor order situation. The supply for job seekers is meager – but now seems to be recovering for the first time since the beginning of the crisis. Many industries want to hire more again.
Despite the third wave of infections, German companies increasingly want to hire new staff. The Ifo Institute in Munich announced that the employment barometer rose sharply by 3.1 points to 97.6 points in March. “This is the highest value since February 2020 – the labor market is starting to recover, despite the lockdown.” In industry, the upswing is also continuing on the job market. “The strong industrial economy is now motivating companies to hire new staff – the electronics industry in particular is looking for new employees,” explained the researchers.
According to this, employment expectations have also improved noticeably in the service sector. The drivers of the development are logisticians and IT service providers. The situation in retail recovered somewhat. There is a slight degree of optimism in wholesaling, while employees in retail continue to be laid off. According to Ifo, there is little movement at the moment in the construction industry.
The Federal Employment Agency (BA) is also registering more vacancies again after the advertisements for the corona pandemic had recently decreased again. The labor demand, which has been subdued since November due to the partial lockdown, is now clearly reviving, said the authority. The BA’s job index rose by four points to 102 points in March and is thus above the reference value of 100 for the first time since March 2020. Compared to February, job registrations have increased in almost all industries.
Significantly more jobs were reported from agriculture and the hospitality industry in March. A noticeable plus was also registered in other services such as hairdressers, in the manufacturing sector and in the construction sector. Compared to the previous year, however, the balance is still negative. With the exception of agriculture and construction, the number of registered jobs is lower in all sectors in March 2021 than in March 2020. With almost a quarter of the decline, a large part is due to temporary work.
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