The indicator shows the annual number of working days lost through strikes or lockouts per 1,000 employees.
When considering strikes and lockouts, the various national forms of the social dialogue must be taken into account. In Germany, employees usually strike after failed negotiations for new collective agreements. As the most frequent form in Germany are regional collective agreements, which are binding for all enterprises of a specific branch in a specific region and also apply to employees who are not members of the trade union, strikes are rather rare. In many cases, regional collective agreements are subsequently adopted in other regions (pilot collective agreement). This shows that employer and employee representative bodies in Germany are rather consensus oriented.
The right to strike is a fundamental right of employees to add emphasis to their demands. However, frequent strikes may reflect bad working conditions.
The figures used here relate to strikes and lockouts reported by employers to the Federal Employment Agency.
Strike days in 2023 increasing
In Germany, 14 working days per 1,000 employees were lost due to strikes on average in 2023. There were more strike days in 2023 than in the previous year, when there were 6.4 lost days per 1,000 employees. While 2015 had the highest number of strike days with 28.2 lost working days, in 2000 there was less than one day (0.3) lost per 1,000 employees due to strikes.
Number of strike days depends on economic branch
The number of strike days depends on the number and size of the striking industries. The impact of strikes, especially the impact on the population, varies greatly. At 38.8 days lost in 2023, the highest figure was reported for trade, transportation and hospitality. This involved 157,947 employees in 3,520 companies.
In the economic sector "Public and other private services", the second highest value of 12.5 days lost per 1,000 employees was recorded for 2023. Almost three quarter of the enterprises affected (a total of 1,213) were in the public administration (785 enterprises). With 89,961 employees of 2,110,902 in total only a fraction had participated from the public administration.
| Economic sector | Average number of working days lost |
|---|---|
| Source: Federal Employment Agency and Employment Accounts. | |
| agriculture, forestry and fishing | 0.1 |
| manufacturing | 2.8 |
| industry | 2.0 |
| construction | 0.3 |
| Trade, transportation and hospitality | 38.8 |
| information and communication | 1.5 |
| financial and insurance activities | 6.9 |
| Business activities | 1.2 |
| Public and other private services | 12.5 |
| Total | 14.0 |
Strikes are short and rare in most economic branches
In most branches of economic activity, strikes occurred only sporadically so that in many years no working days were lost at all. Often, strikes are barely noticeable to the public. However, the strikes arising from periodic collective bargaining in industry, transport and the public service regularly capture the public's attention.
Information on the Indicator
Description or definition
Number of working days lost through strikes and lockouts.
Source
Strikes and lockouts: Statistics of Federal Employment Agency.
Employees: results in Employment Accounts as defined in the National Account Systems (SNA)
Information for interpretation
The figures provided by the Federal Employment Agency on the working days not worked include undercounting. More detailed information is given in the publication: "Streikstatistik (Jahreszahlen)" of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (only german).