Kein Grund zur Panik

The manufacturing industry is an important energy consumer. Especially for natural gas and electricity, the manufacturing sector accounted for 32% and 43% of total consumption, respectively, in 2021. In view of the extreme increases in energy prices - both in absolute terms and in comparison to other economic regions (see Fig. 1) - a debate has therefore flared up as to whether Germany is facing deindustrialization and, if so, what the consequences would be. With a share of over 20% in the gross domestic product and 17% in employment, the manufacturing industry has a significant impact on Germany's economic prosperity. Industrial jobs also pay better than average wages – labor costs in manufacturing were around 20% higher than in market services – and labor productivity growth is higher than in other sectors (Schmidt et al. 2021).