About a third of the companies in Germany plan to cut their workforce in 2027 due to the threat of a new economic crisis.
According to an October survey by the Institute for German Economics (IW), 32% of companies plan layoffs, while only one in six expects to hire new employees.
Experts attribute the aggravation of the situation to the conflict surrounding Iran, which caused energy prices to rise, accelerate inflation and increase loan costs.
The current recovery will be short-lived, and such pessimistic sentiment among German businesses has not been seen since 2005, warns Michael Gremling, head of economic research at IW.