According to an Ifo survey, three times as many jobs are unused on an average day in Germany’s offices as before the corona pandemic. The proportion is currently 12.3 percent on average, as the Ifo Institute in Munich announced on Monday. Before the pandemic, this proportion was only 4.6 percent. Many employees now often work in the home office.
According to Ifo, the average figures hide major differences: in the service sector, for example, the share rose from 6.2 to 16.8 percent, in manufacturing from 3.1 percent in 2019 to currently 9.6 percent.
In trade, the increase is therefore limited from 3.2 to 5.8 percent, as is the case in construction from 1.7 to 2.5 percent. “Particularly empty offices can be found in the information technology, advertising and market research, management consulting and pharmaceutical industries,” said the Ifo.
About a quarter of employees regularly work from home.
Simon KrauseIfo expert
“Around a quarter of employees regularly work from home,” says Ifo expert Simon Krause. Some companies converted empty offices into co-working spaces for more personal exchange on the attendance days. Other companies reduced their space requirements in order to save costs for the unused offices.
“This can have consequences for the real estate market, which is already under pressure due to increased interest rates and construction costs,” explained Simon.
In addition, the decline in office use is hitting inner cities particularly hard. There are an above-average number of offices there, and the shops there are also suffering from lower retail sales due to working from home. (AFP)
