Germany’s economy has unexpectedly become the sick man of Europe, surprising analysts and economic institutions. At first glance, this ailment seems incurable in the short term.
For decades, Germans have worked significantly fewer hours on average than other Europeans, especially compared to those in the southern part of the continent. Their high productivity and the substantial added value of the goods and services they produce have allowed them to achieve much with little. However, now that the economy is stalling, the German government believes that a lack of working hours and a preference for leisure are dragging down the economy.
“In this country, we need to return to working more and, above all, more efficiently,” stated Germany’s new federal chancellor, Friedrich Merz, at an economic event for his party, the CDU.
“With a four-day week and work-life balance, we will not be able to maintain this country’s prosperity,” he warned. His words have caused deep unrest among broad segments of German society, which has always prided itself on being disciplined at work.
These comments come after months of background noise from German businesses about the country’s evident loss of competitiveness in a turbulent international scenario. This noise intensified when a prominent member of the country’s business community recently proposed a way to reverse this trend.
In an article, Bertram Brossardt, the general director of the Bavarian Business Association, lamented that Germans were no longer the obsessive workers they once were and justified the country’s economic stagnation as an impetus to make some decisions. He immediately put one measure on the table: eliminating at least one of Germany’s public holidays.
“Easter Monday, Whit Monday, and St Stephen’s Day. My colleagues from France and Italy are constantly surprised that we have these days off. Removing one of these days off would greatly benefit the German economy and would not be a heavy burden for employees. Religious holidays should not be taboo in this debate. Throughout Europe, we have the most public holidays compared to our neighbouring countries,” Brossardt complained.
The Bavarian businessman backed up his position with data: “In 2023, a German employee worked an average of 1,343 hours. This is 92 hours less than in Austria, 186 hours less than in Switzerland, and 391 hours less than in Italy,” he stated, citing data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2023.
When asked about the difficulty of implementing this measure and the criticism it might generate, Brossardt said: “We are not productive enough. If we want to be competitive, we must go back to working more!” he told Bild newspaper.
“We need more work and fewer holidays,” echoed Wolfram Hatz, President of the Bavarian Business Association. He added that stagnation is forecast for 2025 due to a lack of investment incentives.
According to Clemens Fuest, director of the prestigious Ifo Institute, eliminating one holiday in Germany would “save” €8 billion in GDP each year.
In Germany, there are on average nine national holidays, although in some regions the number reaches 14, the same number of national holidays as in European countries like Spain, where the economy is currently growing with momentum.
However, Germany’s problem today lies in an economic model that seems to have become outdated in the face of rising energy prices and growing competition from countries with lower labour costs that produce goods similar to German ones, which have pushed the European locomotive to the back of the European pack, like China.
According to data published a few weeks ago by Eurostat, Germans are second only to the Dutch in terms of working hours per week in full-time employment. However, when other types of contracts (part-time contracts, for example) are taken into account, Germans work even fewer hours, according to the OECD.
