In March 2009 the German construction industry suffered a drop in incoming orders amounting to 9.1% (in real terms) as compared to the respective month last year. The order volume in structural engineering fell by 13.3 % and by 4.6% in civil engineering. These reductions in March were clearly smaller than those in February (-17.5 %) and January (-24.4 %). Over the first quarter 2009 the average drop in incoming orders to the German construction industry amounted to 16.4% as compared to the respective quarter in the year 2008.
German structural and civil engineering employed about 676,000 people at the end of March 2009 which is about 21,000 people less than one year ago (-3.0%). Total turnover generated by the construction industry amounted to about 5.7 billion Euros in March this year (-1.5 % as compared to March 2008).
For the first quarter 2009 turnover in the German construction industry amounted to about 13.4 billion Euros which was 12.9% less than in the respective period in 2008. At the same time the number of employees fell by 2.1%. 