Laying off people to cut costs is the most anti-capitalist measure and a truly foolish one. Labor is the most precious resource of any country, especially in transforming (manufacturing) economies such as Germany, Italy, and most European economies. Laying off a worker, particularly a specialized one, is a loss of resources and an economic loss.
A jobless worker is not only an increase on overhead expenses of the national economy (unemployment check, health care costs, all to be paid with tax income or with debt), but is also first and foremost a loss of income.
EIR has calculated the loss in output and the increase of costs for jobs lost in 2025 in Germany. The figure is impressive and matches the amount of cuts in welfare planned by the Merz government.
In 2025, there was a real drop in employment in Germany, with 225,000 jobs lost. Using Destatis figures for output and employed persons, we come to an average output per employed person of €97,200, which makes a loss of output of €21.9 billion.
Then, using figures from the IAB (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, which calculates total costs of unemployment, in terms of subsidies and tax losses, 225,000 additional people on unemployment benefits and associated social/health coverage costs Germany roughly €3.8–6.2 billion per year, depending on whether you count only direct payments or the full fiscal hit, including lost tax revenue.
