In the German construction industry the order volume fell by 4.4% (in real terms) last year as compared to 2007. The number of orders to civil engineering decreased by 6.9% and to structural engineering by 1.9%. In December 2008 alone, incoming orders dropped by 11.8% in comparison with December of 2007. Demand to structural engineering fell by 9.0% and that to civil engineering by 14.9% in December 2008 as compared to the same month in 2007. These figures were published by the Federal Statistical Office.
As a consequence of this drop in incoming orders, in the German construction industry the number of people employed fell on average by about 8,000 to 705,000 (-1.2%) in the period from 2007 to 2008. Total turnover generated in the construction industry amounted to 86.8 billion Euros (+6.0%) in 2008.
In December 2008 the construction industry employed 697,000 people which was 1.6% less than in December 2007. Turnover generated in December amounted to 8.1 billion Euros which was an increase by 2.7% as compared to December 2007. 