Quarter of German Businesses Mull Layoffs as Energy Crisis Bites
The picture shows a coal power plant of German energy giant RWE in Weisweiler, western Germany, on January 29, 2020.
MOSCOW, (Sputnik) – One in four German enterprises have or are planning layoffs amid the ongoing energy price boom, a poll commissioned by the Family Businesses Foundation found.The number of companies planning layoffs was up 11% since April. The latest survey was conducted by ifo in September among 1,060 companies, most of them family businesses.Some 90% of those sampled said they were considering hiking prices or had already raised them. A further 13% said they would halt production, up from 6% in March, while 9% said they would move production abroad (up from 6%).Family businesses are the backbone of German economy, according to the foundation’s statistics. Around 90% of companies are family-run. They accounted for 52% of sales in 2016 and employed 58% of the total workforceSince 2021, energy prices in Europe have been surging as part of a global trend. After the beginning of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022 and the adoption of several packages of sanctions against Moscow by the West, fuel prices have accelerated the growth, pushing many EU governments to resort to contingency measures.
