20% of Germans read news on the internet 22. February 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to a current analysis carried out by the Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) print media have lost readers in recent times while the number of readers of news portals increased considerably in the year 2007. Thus, the twenty most frequently used news portals were visited 3.8 billion times which means …
Production costs increased by 3.3% in January 22. February 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to the Federal Statistical Office, the index of production costs for industrial products was 3.3% higher in January 2008 than in January 2007. In comparison with December 2007, this index increased by 0.8%. The most driving force behind this increase were energy prices which increased by 5.9%. Without taking into account the energy price …
German online dating services generate a turnover of 85 million Euros 21. February 2008 by Thomas Jannot A very lucrative business model are partner finding sites on the internet. The operators of such sites were able to increase their turnover by 29% in the year 2007. Germans spent 85 million Euros on finding a partner online. This was revealed by a market study carried out by the Jupiter Research market research institute. …
New initiative to market German vocational system 21. February 2008 by Thomas Jannot The German vocational system is renowned internationally due to its combination of practice-oriented training in companies and high-quality training at vocational schools. Therefore, in many countries all over the world many people want to co-operate with German experts in the field of training and further education. The international market for the export of education is …
German industry increases competitiveness 20. February 2008 by Thomas Jannot A current special survey by the ifo institute in Munich showed that German industry increased its competitiveness more than the EU as a whole. In particular in comparison with France and Italy German companies acquired a competitive edge. The ifo experts believe that one of the main reasons for this development may be the fact …
Reform of study courses should benefit business too 20. February 2008 by Thomas Jannot The Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) analysed the role played by universities in qualifying specialists by surveying more than 235 companies. Most important to 71% of all companies is team spirit as the most important skill which university graduates should have developed when applying for a job. Also important is working …
About 421.000 new companies set up in 2006 19. February 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to calculations by the Institut für Mittelstandsforschung in Bonn, about 421.000 new companies were set up in the year 2006 in Germany. In 89.9% of these there were no employees and just 10% employed up to 49 people. Thus, 99.9% of all company founders started with less than 50 employees.
SMEs very popular in Germany 19. February 2008 by Thomas Jannot Major companies and the top-managers thereof receive bad marks from Germans. Just 7% of the German population have confidence in what major companies do. On the other hand, 90% of Germans strongly believe in the work of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). This was the finding of a representative survey carried out by forsa.
Slight decrease in business insolvencies in Europe 19. February 2008 by Thomas Jannot The number of business insolvencies has been falling for several months, and not only in Germany. In the EU15 countries plus Norway and Switzerland the number of bankruptcies has been declining over the past three years and reached just 129.800 in the year 2007. One year earlier, there had been 6930 more insolvencies which corresponds …
4.2 billion Euros foreign trade deficit for Eurozone 18. February 2008 by Thomas Jannot According to estimates by the Statistical Office of the EU (Eurostat), there was as foreign trade deficit amounting to 4.2 billion Euros in December 2007 in the Eurozone (EZ13). One year earlier, in December 2006, the EZ13 had generated a surplus of 2.4 billion. In November 2007 there had been a surplus of 3.0 billion …