With workers in high demand and inflation jumping to 10.9% last month, German public sector staff are seeking a 10.5% pay boost, while metals workers are demanding an 8% raise. Graph: BLOOMBERG
A steep rise in the cost of labour may be a boon to workers, but for Europe’s biggest economy, it’s a blow to competitiveness that could hardly come at a worse time. Firms are getting creative. Some factories are installing ergonomic equipment to keep workers on physically demanding assembly lines well into their 60s. Others are offering four-day work weeks and signing perks such as skydiving excursions.Felix Huefner, an economist at UBS Group in Frankfurt, expects German wages to grow 3.5% by end-2023.
The auto industry is redoubling efforts to build its own workforce. BMW recently put 75,000 staff into retraining programmes for new production technologies with higher levels of digitisation and automation. Car-parts giant Continental has enrolled 10% of its workforce into its internal tech school.
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