15% of German companies are facing "survival crisis" due to the epidemic

The survey shows that travel agencies, hotels and restaurants are most worried about the negative impact of the epidemic, which will endanger their survival, accounting for 86%, 76% and 62% respectively. In contrast, only 3% of lawyers and accounting firms and 5% of information technology companies have such concerns. In other industries, 27% of advertising companies and nearly 14% of logistics companies believe that they are in danger; while the proportion of trade and service companies has dropped from June to 14% and 19%; in the industrial sector, Although the proportion of companies in trouble as a whole has decreased, the differences between different branches are huge: the proportion of metal manufacturers and processors, printing houses, beverage manufacturers, textile and clothing companies facing "survival crisis" is significantly higher For chemical and pharmaceutical companies; although this proportion in the construction industry has nearly doubled from June, it is still at a low level of only 4%.

In addition, according to the results of a survey of about 7,000 companies released by the Iver Institute for Economic Research the previous day, the proportion of German companies that adopted short-time jobs in November rose again after the decline in the previous months, from 24.8% in October to 28. %. Among them, the largest increases were still travel agencies, hotels and restaurants, accounting for 91.1%, 71.1% and 91% respectively. These industries are currently the most restricted by the "light version" of the blockade order currently implemented across Germany.

Statistics show that more companies adopt short-time work systems in almost all economic sectors such as services, trade, and construction. Only a few branches in the industrial sector are excluded, such as automobile companies, publishing houses, electrical equipment and data processing equipment manufacturers, and printing houses.

It is worth mentioning that the German government announced at the end of August that it would extend the short-time work subsidy, which originally expired at the end of this year, for another year until the end of 2021 in order to better respond to the epidemic crisis. According to this policy, when employees reduce their work by more than 50% due to the epidemic, starting from the fourth month, their short-time work allowance will be reduced by 60% of the previous employee’s net wage income (employees with minor children) 67%) to 70% (77% for employees with minor children); from the seventh month, the subsidy will be increased to 80% of the reduction in net wage income of employees (87% for employees with minor children) %)