German industry jobs reach record-high

Fuelled by the strong economy, the German manufacturing industry has greatly increased its hiring to record-high levels, the Federal Statistics Office reported Friday.

The office said manufacturing companies with 50 or more employees had 5.6 million people on their payrolls in April, up 2.7 per cent or 146,000 jobs more than the year before. It was a record figure since data began to be compiled for this job market segment in January 2005.

The strongest employment growth – 4.1 per cent – was in companies making data-processing equipment and electronic and opticals goods. Above-average growth was also seen for jobs in machinery construction (plus 3.4 per cent) and in production of metal goods (plus 3.3 per cent). In the metal-processing sector, by contrast, employment growth was below average at 1.4 per cent, the statistics office said.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the international trade tensions with the United States, the German economy has shown signs of losing momentum. On Friday the Bundesbank, in its semi-annual economic report, lowered its growth outlook for 2018, projecting a 2.0 per cent rise for the gross domestic product. Last December, the bank had projected 2.5 per cent growth. But overall, the German economic boom was expected to continue, the bank’s economists said.

Source: dpa