Lower Saxony’s companies significantly lowered their expectations for 2021 during the Corona lockdown at the turn of the year. This is the result of an economic survey of 14 employers’ associations led by Niedersachsenmetall. “The optimism about the future for 2021 is currently slipping away. It is melting like butter in the sun,” said the general manager of Niedersachsenmetall, Volker Schmidt, on Friday in Hanover. He warned against a political competition to outdo each other with ever tougher pandemic control measures.
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According to the information, the industry suffered a production slump of an average of 20 percent at most companies last year. “We have never seen anything like this on this scale,” said Schmidt. Against this background, the companies expected a production increase of 10 percent in December in the new year. In January, however, that figure fell to 6 percent.
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The outlook is also clouded in the automotive industry, which provides more than half of the industrial jobs in Lower Saxony. In December, the companies expected a production increase of 13 percent in 2021. In January they expected an increase of only 8 percent.
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The trade and services sector is also suffering from the Corona crisis. The sales expectations for 2021 decreased compared to the previous month from an increase of 20 percent to 8 percent.
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With a view to the labor market, the short-time allowance prevented a “collapse”, said Schmidt. Niedersachsenmetall nevertheless assumes that around 55,000 jobs will be lost in Lower Saxony’s industry in 2020 and 2021, 35,000 of which will be at auto suppliers.
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