The Ifo Employment Barometer for German trade and industry rose slightly again in January, after falling significantly last month. The positive trend in the German employment market continues into the first month of 2012.
In manufacturing personnel planning looks more positive again, following three successive falls in the employment barometer. In the capital goods sector in particular there are still plans to significantly increase staff numbers. Mechanical engineering companies see a substantial need for additional staff. After pursuing a rather reticent staffing policy at the end of last year, a greater number of automotive manufacturers now wish to look for additional staff. The employment barometer also rose in the construction sector. Retailers and wholesalers, on the other hand, reported a more cautious approach to recruiting additional staff.
Download as PDF-File
The table is in Excel-format for facilitating further processing by the user.
Legend: The Ifo Employment Barometer is based on ca. 7,000 monthly responses from businesses in manufacturing, construction, wholesaling and retailing. The companies are asked to report on their employment plans for the coming three months. They can describe their plans for the number of employees for the coming six months as “increasing”, “stable”, or “decreasing”. The balance value of the plans is the difference in the percentage shares of the responses “increasing” and “decreasing”. To calculate the index value the balances are normed to the average for the year 2005.
The Ifo Employment Barometer is calcualted exclusively for the Financial Times Deutschland.
Abberger, Klaus, "Das ifo Beschäftigungsbarometer: Ein Druckmesser für den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt", ifo Schnelldienst 9/2008, pp. 19-22 (Abstract | Download)
Abberger, Klaus, "Qualitative Business Surveys and the Assessment of Employment A Case Study for Germany", Ifo Working Paper No. 11, 2005 (Abstract | Download)
André Kunkel (together with Christian Hott), "Ein ifo Beschäftigungsindikator", ifo Schnelldienst 6/2004, pp. 53-57 (Abstract | Download)
Business Cycle Analyses and Surveys
Phone: +49(0)89/9224-1308 Fax: +49(0)89/985369
RSS