The economic outlook for Germany’s steel and electrical engineering industries is becoming critical, with employers warning of the potential loss of 300,000 jobs, according to Remix News.
This staggering figure comes on top of the 300,000 jobs already cut since the year of 2019, bringing total employment in these sectors down to 3.8 million. Despite this, the problems for Chancellor Friedrich Merz are only just beginning, against a backdrop of falling approval ratings. Meanwhile, the popularity of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) hovers between 28 and 29%, making it by far the most popular party in the country.
Alice Weidel criticised the state of the nation, accusing Merz of a major failure on her social media page on the platform X:
“According to a study by the consulting firm EY, more than 341,000 industrial jobs have been lost in Germany since 2019. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, employment fell by 2.3 per cent. The relief measures and structural reforms announced by Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz have thus failed to materialise. The ongoing loss of now over 341,000 industrial jobs is not a marginal cyclical phenomenon, but an expression of a profound failure of structural policy. Whilst other economies are deliberately strengthening their industrial base and benefiting from global growth, Germany under the leadership of Friedrich Merz has further decoupled itself from the international upswing.”
She stated that Germany is in a dire state, as effective reforms are not being implemented; instead, “growth-inhibiting” mechanisms are in place that are accelerating the outflow of production abroad. Weidel concluded: “While our own industrial location erodes, billions in funds are being misappropriated for projects abroad. A systematic misallocation of public resources at the expense of our own economy, which has nothing whatsoever to do with responsible economic policy anymore.”
Gesamtmetall President Udo Dinglreiter pointed out the industrial sector is on the brink of significant job cuts and that hundreds of thousands more jobs are at risk of being lost. “We are in danger of losing another 300,000,” he said in Handelsblatt.
Should this trend continue, it would mean the lowest level of employment in the electrical engineering and metalworking industries since German reunification. On top of that, these are well-paid jobs that are of fundamental importance to many other sectors, which could trigger a chain reaction.
Dinglreiter is calling on the federal government to swiftly implement a package of measures aimed at restoring the country’s economic competitiveness. If such steps are not taken, he warned, job losses will continue, production processes will be relocated to other countries, and tax revenues and social security contributions will decline, thereby triggering a serious downward spiral.
In addition, Chinese investment in the European Union is primarly directed towards other member states rather than Germany, which does not contribute to job creation at the local level but, on the contrary, creates new competitors operating under more favourable conditions and with access to markets.
