Germany's Economic Woes Weigh on Its Job Market | DW News

Jun 1, 2026 | The past few years have been difficult for the German job market, and things are unlikely to improve quickly. DW looks at the latest economic forecast for Germany and the picture it paints for job-seekers and the overall economy. We examine which sectors are struggling, which are thriving and what experts foresee in the coming years.

Broke and Dejected: Germany’s Future in Limbo

Feb 21, 2025 | Once considered a titan of industry, Germany is now facing its worst economic crisis since WWII, along with a host of other internal issues including political instability, the rise of the far right and unresolved internal conflict over immigration policies.Here’s a look at how this former European powerhouse is self-imploding.

Massive Layoffs Signal Deepening Crisis in German Industry | DW Business

Dec 10, 2024 | Germany's industrial heavyweights are slashing jobs as the country struggles to escape its economic funk. Volkswagen made headlines when it said it wanted to curb employee pay and cut factories. Now, Ford and steelmaker Thyssenkrupp are saying thousands of jobs in Germany are on the line. How can Europe's top economy dig itself out of this hole?

Germany's Downfall: Can a New Government Turn Things Around? | To The Point

Nov 14, 2024 | Germany’s government coalition collapsed the day Donald Trump was announced winner of the US elections. Now, Germans will have to decide who will rule the country in a snap election in February. Until then, little else will get done. Olaf Scholz has become a lame duck chancellor - at a time when Germany needs strong political leadership more than ever: the economy is struggling, society is divided. Europe’s heavyweight has come to a halt, including in foreign policy. That’s especially bitter for Ukraine: while its two biggest supporters, the US and Germany, are stuck in a power vacuum, its war against Russia continues to escalate. On To the Point we ask: Germany's downfall: can a new government turn things around?

Featuring Guests:
Michaela Küfner, DW's Chief Political Editor
Felix Lee, SZ Dossier
Melinda Crane, US Expert

Why Berlin Can’t Agree on Fixing the Economy | DW News

Oct 25, 2024 | More subsidies for industry -- or lower taxes and less bureaucracy? Germany’s coalition government is divided over how to fix its struggling economy, with each party making their own suggestions. Deutsche Welle speaks with economist Clemens Fuest, president of the Ifo Institute, on what it will take for the German economy to improve and which policy approach he prefers.

Germany's Government Confirms Second Year of Recession | DW News

Oct 9, 2024 | The German government has updated its growth forecast for the country’s economy. It is now expecting GDP to drop 0.2 percent for this year, making it the second year in a row with a shrinking economy. We’re talking to ING chief economist Carsten Brzeski about the reasons for Germany’s weakness, how the country stacks up compared to other economic superpowers – and what the future will hold.

Why Germany Will Lose the 2030s

Mar 9, 2024 | The world's 4th largest economy, Germany, is facing serious challenges. From its reliance on China for export markets to the impact of its energy choices and its role within the European Union, this video delves into the multifaceted issues that Germany must navigate in the coming years.

Germany, Once a Powerhouse, Is at an Economic ‘Standstill’

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The economy shrank last year and is not predicted to grow much in 2024. Farmers are angry, industrial output is falling and the government is bickering.

Germany started the year with Berlin’s streets choked with tractors and farmers blaring horns in furious protest of proposed budget cuts. Then train engineers walked off the job to demand better pay, stranding commuters and carloads of freight and leaving the country angry and gridlocked.

The same could be said for the state of the German economy. Last year it contracted 0.3 percent, official figures showed this week, making it not only the largest economy but also the slowest growing among the 20 countries using the euro. Industrial production has fallen five months in a row.

“The economy is at a standstill in Germany,” said Siegfried Russwurm, the president of the Federation of German Industries. “We don’t see any chance of a rapid recovery in 2024.”

Since it was rebuilt after World War II, Germany has been Europe’s main driver of economic growth, becoming an industrial powerhouse known for vast factories and fine-tuned engineering.

But now its automakers must compete with relatively cheap electric cars from China, and it vies with the United States to attract tech giants. There is a growing realization that Germany has not been successful updating its industry with sufficient flexibility and digital know-how to remain competitive. » | Melissa Eddy, Reporting from Berlin | Thursday, January 18, 2024

Germany's Troubled Economy Fuels Far-right Rise | DW News

Sept 1, 2013 | Germany's economy is struggling, and important economic indicators are pointing in the wrong direction. Ordinary Germans are worried, causing a loss of faith in the country's traditional parties.

More German Businesses Go Bankrupt amid Weak Economy, High Inflation | DW News

A sharp uptick in the number of German firms beginning insolvency proceedings is raising eyebrows in Europe's largest economy. Some 762 firms declared bankruptcy in September — a 34% increase from the same period last year.

And the upward-trend is set to continue this month and the next, according to the Halle Institute for Economic Research. Its new report suggests that by November up to 40% more companies could be beginning insolvency proceedings, compared to the same period last year.

Merkel Leaves the German Economy with Trouble under the Hood

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Chancellor Angela Merkel steered Europe through crises, and Germany has boomed during her tenure. But she has ducked changes needed to ensure the success lasts, analysts say.

During Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tenure, economists say, Germany has neglected digital infrastructure, bungled an exit from nuclear power and become dependent on exporting to China. | Bernd von Jutrczenka/Picture Alliance, via Getty Images
During her 16 years as Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel has become an international avatar of calm, reason and democratic values for the way she handled crises that included a near financial meltdown of the eurozone, the arrival of more than a million migrants and a pandemic.

Today Germany is an economic colossus, the engine of Europe, enjoying prosperity and near full employment despite the pandemic. But can it last?

That is the question looming as Ms. Merkel prepares to leave the political stage after national elections on Sept. 26. There are signs that Germany is economically vulnerable, losing competitiveness and unprepared for a future shaped by technology and the rivalry between the United States and China.

During her tenure, economists say, Germany neglected to build world-class digital infrastructure, bungled a hasty exit from nuclear power, and became alarmingly dependent on China as a market for its autos and other exports.

The China question is especially complex. Germany’s strong growth during Ms. Merkel’s tenure was largely a result of trade with China, which she helped promote. But, increasingly, China is becoming a competitor in areas like industrial machinery and electric vehicles. » | Jack Ewing and Melissa Eddy | Friday, September 17, 2021

Germany Prepares for an Economic Downturn

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Clouds are gathering on the horizon of the global economy and the risk of a recession is growing. Many experts believe that the international banking system is unprepared and Germany has begun getting ready for the worst.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is something like a global weather station for the economy, carefully registering even the tiniest of disruptions to the world economic stage. And in the past week, IMF analysts have concluded that a storm is brewing on the horizon.

Its experts carefully register every impulse, and in the past week they've concluded that the forecast is looking increasingly dark. "I see storm clouds building," David Lipton, the IMF's first deputy managing director, recently said in London, adding that the global banking system isn't ready for another downturn. "The work on crisis prevention is incomplete," he said.

The economic outlook is worsening almost by the week. A general consensus among economy experts has emerged that 2019 will be worse for all large national economies than last year. Stock exchanges already began dropping last year, with Germany's blue-chip index DAX losing almost 20 percent of its value in 2018 while the Dow Jones also showed losses. » | Christian Reiermann | Tuesday, January 8, 2019

‘The Model Economy’ in Germany Is Growing a Class of Working Poor

General election campaign is in full swing in Germany but little attention is being paid to the high proportion of working poor explains economist Heiner Flassbeck.

John Kampfner: Cameron's Little Englanders Need Some German Lessons

THE GUARDIAN: Europhobic talk of taking back powers from the EU to foster growth ignores Germany's route to real, lasting economic success

Nothing does your head in more as a Londoner than living in a small town in Germany. It was in the late 1980s that I found myself as a foreign correspondent living in Bonn, the "capital village", as it was known before reunification.

My first culture shock came as I crossed the border from Belgium. When I presented my credit card for payment at a service station the attendant looked at me blankly, and asked: "What would I want with that?" I gradually got used to elderly folk peering through net curtains to see what I might be up to. The neighbourhood committee would leave notes on my car windscreen addressed to the "Dear Respected Neighbour", asking me ever so politely to clean my car as it was bringing down the reputation of the street. And the shops … spindly corner shops that were never open when office folk needed them.

This was the time when in Britain, everyone was aspiring to be Gordon Gekko, or so the myth went. Work hard, play hard, chop and change jobs and enjoy the high-octane lifestyle. How I envied my friends back home. I was convinced that, for all its Thatcherite ugliness and excess, there was something about the UK's gritty liveliness that would leave the stolid Germans behind. The economists tended to agree. Flexible labour markets and low unit labour costs were the future. Deregulation was essential. Financial services presented the path to paradise.

So what has changed? Everything and nothing. Not only did (West) Germany absorb the economically decrepit East in the 1990s, with far less inequity and far greater success than any other country could have achieved, but it has withstood the vagaries of the financial cycle with greater ease than the rest of Europe.

It has done so by changing practices gradually, such as pension reform and labour market reform … and a limited loosening of shopping hours. But it has not altered the postwar settlement that produced the first Wirtschaftswunder, the economic miracle. The German model is based on long-term planning and investment, not the get-rich-quick City culture that has been the norm in Britain and the US. Read on and comment » | John Kampfner | Tuesday, October 25, 2011