Petrotahlil - Employment in the German chemicals sector fell 5% in April as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to research from the Ifo institute on Monday.

While the pharmaceutical industry has recorded no job loss due to the pandemic, other markets downstream of the chemicals sector have marked much higher cuts in the same period.

The services sector marked the largest decline as lockdown measures have prohibited hotels, restaurants and travel agents from operating.

In the manufacturing sector, 39% of automotive companies have recorded a downturn in employment figures, surpassed by a 48% drop of jobs in leather, leather goods and footwear manufacturers.

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There were regional differences, with the Rhineland Palatinate and Saarland state (laender) marking the lowest reduction of employment at 11%.

The state is home to chemicals major's BASF main site of Ludwigshafen; the company said last week it would not make redundancies because of the pandemic.

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Although job reductions have been minimal, Germany's trade group BAVC highlighted that 15% of workers in the German chemicals and pharmaceutical industry have been put on short-time work.

Germany’s chemicals industry is the largest in Europe, with €193bn annual sales in 2019 and more than 400,000 workers.

Germany’s manufacturing sectors are key exporters, and tend to be hit greatly by global slowdowns that dent trade in goods.

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