There are some branches of industry which due to their particularly high innovational power grow even in times of economic crisis or which at least keep their business volume. One such industry is that of specialised microcomputers integrated in certain products, so-called “embedded systems”. A current survey carried out jointly by the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) and the TechConsult market research institute showed that demand for these systems will at least remain unchanged this year. According to calculations by market researchers, manufacturers of these systems are predicted to generate about 4 billion Euros in turnover in 2009 in Germany.
46 % of manufacturers of embedded systems expect turnover to remain unchanged this year as compared to last year, 28 % of businesses believe that turnover is going to increase this year and 26% expect sales figures to fall.
Embedded systems control for example energy grids, gas pipelines, trains or ultrasonic devices and devices for dialysis. “Many manufacturers of embedded systems invested in new markets and fields of application during the successful time in the years 2007 and 2008 and benefit from these investments now“, is the comment by Prof. August-Wilhelm Scheer, BITKOM president, on the current development of this line of industry.
Many manufacturers of embedded systems are currently looking for specialist employees. Thus, one third of manufacturers said that they want to hire additional staff this year. Just 4% of businesses plan to cut jobs due to the economic crisis. Manufacturers of embedded systems are currently employing about 40,000 people in Germany, most of them electrical engineers and technical computer scientists. 