Monday 14 June 2021
Third is planning new hires
Medium-sized companies expect “post-corona boom”
The number of infections is falling and the economic situation is steadily recovering. Germany’s medium-sized businesses are increasingly optimistic – according to a survey, many companies are planning new hires in the next six months. Nevertheless, Corona continues to weigh on business.
German medium-sized companies are preparing for a “post-corona boom” and want to hire a lot of staff again after the end of the pandemic. A survey by DZ Bank and the Federation of German Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks (BVR) showed that almost 27 percent of companies want to hire new employees in the next six months. In autumn 2020, only 17 percent of companies had such plans. In the electrical industry, this value is particularly high at 44 percent, twice as many companies as in autumn 2020. In the chemical and plastics industries, it is around a third.
The figures also showed that the companies are even “more open to new hires” than they were before the pandemic, according to the published study results. According to the survey of around 1000 medium-sized companies, the willingness to invest is also increasing again: 77 percent of the companies surveyed want to invest in future projects in the next six months. That, too, is “more than the pre-crisis level,” says the study. In the fall, this was an option for less than 69 percent of companies. More and more medium-sized companies are preparing for the “post-corona boom”, explained DZ Bank and BVR.
The effects of the crisis are currently only noticeable in the current business situation of many companies. As the survey also showed, however, for 58 percent of the managing directors surveyed, worries on the procurement side have never been as great as they are now – they identified raw material costs as an acute problem for their business. Concerns are particularly high at 84 percent in the chemical industry. The reason for this are disruptions in the supply chains, which has a significant impact on the availability of important raw materials and goods. This affects the sales prices: In the coming months, almost 36 percent of those surveyed want to increase their prices. In the fall, this was only the case for one in five.
More than half of the companies (51 percent) are also concerned about rising energy costs, especially in the food and agriculture sectors. Companies are also worried about the growing bureaucracy – 80 percent and thus more than ever before said this. The shortage of skilled workers is also a problem for companies. In the latest survey, 73 percent of the companies said this, six months ago it was 67 percent.
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