The trade association Textil Schuhe Lederwaren (BTE) pointed out on Monday to the massive loss of jobs in inpatient trade in clothing, shoes and leather goods.
In the period from 2019 to 2024, the total number of employees in these divisions fell by almost 50,000 in Germany, the industry organization said, citing data from the Federal Employment Agency. At the end of 2019, 380,036 people still worked in these segments, on December 31, 2024 there were only 330,246. This corresponded to a decline of 13.1 percent.
The main reason for the decline in employment is the strong falling number of industry companies
In retail with clothing, the number of employees decreased by 11.3 percent to 276,669 people during the five-year period. The figures for employees subject to social security (-12.5 percent) and full-time employees: inside (-20.8 percent) fell above average.
In retail with shoes, the total number of employees fell by 21.4 percent to 48,047, in retail with leather goods by 17.0 percent to 5,530.
As the main reason for the massive job losses in the examined industries, the BTE made “the strongly declining number of inpatient companies in and after corona pandemic”. From 2019 to 2023 alone, the number of corresponding retail companies fell by 18.1 percent to 16.110. In the clothing trade, the number of companies shrank by 17.2 percent, in shoe trade by 20.6 percent and 22.4 percent in the leather goods trade.