ifo Employment Barometer Plummets (March 2020)

German companies have put the brakes on their personnel planning. The ifo Employment Barometer fell heavily to 93.4 points in March after measuring 98.0 points in February. This is the largest decline since records began in 2002 and the lowest value since January 2010. New hires have ceased.

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Trade, the service sector, and the construction industry are setting new records for the decline in the barometer. While trade will see an increase in layoffs, this tendency is only slight among service providers. Construction is the sole sector with no changes to the workforce. In industry, the barometer has fallen only slightly. However, layoffs were already anticipated and those will now go ahead.

ifo Employment Barometer Plummets (March 2020)

ifo Employment Barometer Germany

(Index, 2015 = 100, seasonally adjusted)

	03/19	04/19	05/19	06/19	07/19	08/19	09/19	10/19	11/19	12/19	01/20	02/20	03/20
Barometer	101.3	101.5	100.4	100.0	99.5	98.2	98.9	98.7	99.5	98.8	99.6	98.0	93.4

Source: ifo Business Survey.
© ifo Institute

ifo Employment Barometer by Sector

(Balances, seasonally adjusted)

	03/19	04/19	05/19	06/19	07/19	08/19	09/19	10/19	11/19	12/19	01/20	02/20	03/20
Manufacturing	-1.5	-4.0	-5.6	-8.2	-12.3	-10.6	-12.8	-11.8	-14.0	-15.2	-15.3	-17.8	-18.3
Service Sector	14.6	16.6	13.3	13.9	13.3	8.4	12.0	10.4	14.5	11.7	15.1	10.3	-3.4
Trade	3.0	3.4	1.9	-0.6	1.1	-1.0	-0.9	-0.5	-0.2	1.9	0.4	1.4	-8.0
Construction	15.6	10.8	12.9	11.8	12.8	11.3	11.1	13.4	12.3	13.4	12.3	10.1	1.7

Source: ifo Business Survey.
© ifo Institute

Contact

Dr. Klaus Wohlrabe

Deputy Director of the ifo Center for Macroeconomics and Surveys and Head of Surveys

Tel: +49(0)89/9224-1229
Fax: +49(0)89/9224-1463
Mail: wohlrabe@ifo.de

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ifo Employment Barometer

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ifo Time-series