Schwerin (dpa/mv) – Despite all the efforts of the state government to strengthen industry in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the number of employees in this area is falling. As the Statistical Office announced on Tuesday, citing the latest calculations by the Working Group on Employment Accounts of the Federal States, the number of people employed in manufacturing fell by 1.8 percent in the third quarter compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Nationwide, however, the statistics show a slight increase of 0.4 percent. A similar picture emerged in the construction industry, which also lost employees in the north-east.
The development of employment in the north-east also lagged behind the national trend across all sectors of the economy. According to statistics, the number of people in employment working in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania rose to a total of 768,300 within the twelve months up to the end of September. At 0.2 percent, the increase fell noticeably short of the increase of 1.1 percent determined for the whole of Germany. Only Saarland and Saxony-Anhalt recorded an even weaker employment development than Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
New jobs were mainly created in the service sectors, in which three quarters of all employees in the north-east work. According to the statistics office in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, marginal employment and self-employment continued to decrease.
