For the third year in a row, crafts and trades generated a real decline in sales in 2022. With a price-adjusted minus of 3.5 percent compared to the previous year, the division is decoupled from the overall economic development, it was said at a press conference on Thursday. The sector is also struggling with a shortage of skilled workers and a drop in orders. “We are still in crisis mode,” said division chairwoman Renate Scheichelbauer-Schuster.
Only four sectors in the trades and crafts sector had recorded positive sales development in 2022, led by photographers with a real increase of 2.9 percent compared to 2021. These four sectors are “typically not heavyweights in sales” and only account for around 7 percent of total sales in Germany trades and crafts, restricted Christina Enichlmair from KMU Forschung Austria. All other sectors did not grow in volume last year. The roofers, glaziers and plumbers, for example, achieved a drop in sales of 9.2 percent (price-adjusted).
The decline in orders in the capital goods-related sectors such as construction and construction-related trade is atypical, in the first quarter of 2023 there was a minus of 7.8 percent. “Typically, the order backlog goes up in a first quarter. There’s always been growth over the last few years, at least on a small scale,” said Enichlmair. The order situation should be viewed from the high level of the previous year and is still higher than in the pre-Corona times, but the development is still questionable. The construction industry recorded a drop in orders of 14.5 percent, and there has always been growth here in recent years.
In 2022, the division reached an all-time high with around 831,000 employees. “This record employment is not a matter of course and certainly not a guarantee for the future, because we are running out of workers,” said Scheichelbauer-Schuster. The division is currently missing around 70,000 workers, and the number might double by 2040. The reasons for this are the demographic development, fewer working hours and an increased need for personnel. “To prevent this, we have to take countermeasures in good time,” said Scheichelbauer-Schuster. For example, improved childcare, tax-exempt overtime and incentives to work beyond retirement age are needed.
Companies’ expectations for the current second quarter of 2023 are more optimistic than for the previous quarter. Typically, the construction industry wakes up from “winter mode” in the second quarter. Falling energy costs and the “positive signals from politics” also play a role, said Scheichelbauer-Schuster. For example, the companies would have gained planning security through the announcement of the energy cost subsidy.
