Economic crisis in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: entrepreneurs are desperate!

Economic crisis in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: entrepreneurs are desperate!

The economic situation in eastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania continues to be tense Northern Courier reported, the results of the latest economic survey by the Neubrandenburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce show no improvements after the summer. There is a consistently bad mood among entrepreneurs, which is already classified as pessimistic. Hardly any investments are being made at the moment and the economic climate index is stagnating at 97 points, which is well below the ten-year average of 110 points.

362 companies from various sectors took part in the survey, including industry, construction, trade, services, transport and hospitality. A key problem cited by 68 percent of entrepreneurs surveyed is rising labor costs. A new minimum wage of 13.90 euros, which is due to apply at the turn of the year, will make a significant contribution to this increase. Only 6 percent of companies intend to hire new staff, while 28 percent expect a decline in the workforce.

Risks and challenges

The high level of bureaucracy and the economic policy framework are identified as the second biggest obstacle for companies. 57 percent of those surveyed cited energy and raw material prices as a third risk. In addition, almost half of the companies are not planning any significant investments; The expenses are usually limited to replacement purchases of a maximum of 10,000 euros. The fact that the industry's business balance is negative for the first time in ten years is almost alarming. High labor costs and weak domestic demand are putting enormous strain on companies.

Although the construction industry remains stable, it is struggling with a significant shortage of skilled workers. In retail, wholesale is showing weak demand, while retail is suffering from rising labor costs. The transport industry has also made progress, but its development is hampered by high costs and a lack of skilled workers. The hospitality industry is heavily burdened by rising wage and energy costs, which leads to a decline in willingness to invest.

Political demands

In view of this tense situation, IHK general manager Torsten Haasch is calling for political measures to improve economic conditions. These include reducing the reform backlog in labor and social policy as well as reducing non-wage labor costs to less than 40 percent. Relieving bureaucracy and reducing energy costs for companies are also considered necessary. Rapid progress on planned infrastructure projects is also required in order to support the regional economy.

Without the implementation of these suggestions, the IHK sees no possibility of a recovery of the economic situation in the region. The remaining companies are in a quandary and uncertainty about the economic future remains for now.

In another context, it is worth mentioning that extensive maintenance work was carried out on GoToMyPC over the weekend, the aim of which was to improve the connection quality. During this maintenance, around 5 percent of the machines could be offline or unavailable, which has more or less impact on daily work, depending on the case. Affected computers should be restarted accordingly or the GoToMyPC services restarted reported the community forum.

In addition, there are also discussions in the tech community about career development in the semiconductor industry. Recommendations for further training and networking show that specialists are increasingly training and networking in order to better meet the challenges of the market. These developments are an example of the future demands on employees and the need to be able to adapt in order to be successful in their careers said the forum participants.