Industrial downturn

The effects of the global economic crisis are becoming ever clearer in Germany, where the number of jobs in industry sank by 3.9 percent in July compared to the same month in 2008, according to a new report from Germany's statistics office. The new report shows that 5.03 million people are currently employed in German industry, compared to over 5.2 million last July.

The number of actual man-hours sank by an even more alarming 10.4 percent, as more and more industrial workers have had their hours cut back. The gross income earned fell by eight percent to 16.6 billion euros ($24.5 billion).

Worst hit were the metal, rubber and plastic industries, but Germany's beleagured automobile industry also took significant workforce losses of close to five percent.

Federal Labor Office set to shoulder huge debt

According to a report in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, the slump could have a devastating effect on the Federal Labor Office. Quoting a study by the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB), the Federal Labor Office could find itself with a 50-billion-euro debt by 2013 without government help.

The Federal Labor Office's expenses this year are already 12 percent higher than they were in 2008, and its income has sunk by 16 percent.

The news comes a day after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported that the current economic downturn will cost up to 10 million more jobs in its member states by the end of 2010. In the second half of next year, the unemployment rate in the world's 30 richest countries could average around 10 percent, the OECD said.

bk/AP/dpa
Editor: Trinity Hartman