In no other Bavarian administrative district does industry play as large a role as in the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz). There, it accounts for 23.2 percent of jobs and 30.4 percent of value added, as shown by a study from Prognos commissioned by the Bavarian Business Association (vbw). At the other end of the scale is Upper Bavaria (Oberbayern). Although large industrial corporations are based there, the sector’s share of employment is only 13.9 percent and its share of value added is 21.5 percent.
The study indicates that the share of industry has declined in all seven of Bavaria’s administrative districts from 2014 to 2024. For value added, the decline was Bavaria-wide, from 27 to 23 percent. Nevertheless, according to the survey, around 1.5 million jobs in Bavaria are still directly in industry, with a further 450,000 jobs directly dependent on it.
Declining Industrial Share: Lower Bavaria Strongly Affected
This shift is by no means uniform. For instance, industry’s share of gross value added in Lower Bavaria (Niederbayern) fell particularly sharply from 2014 to 2024 – by 6 percentage points to 25.3 percent. In contrast, Upper Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate lost only 2.6 percentage points, Swabia (Schwaben) lost 3.2, Lower and Middle Franconia (Unter- und Mittelfranken) lost 3.7, and Upper Franconia (Oberfranken) lost 4.2 percentage points.
The decline in employment shares is consistently slower. The smallest declines were in Upper Bavaria (1.5 percentage points) and Swabia (1.9), while the largest were in Lower Franconia (3.8 points) and Lower Bavaria (3.4).
Association Raises Alarm
The cross-sectoral interest group for the Bavarian economy, “vbw,” views this development critically. Bavaria is an industrial state, they emphasize. But Chief Executive Bertram Brossardt warns: “The creeping deindustrialization threatens our successful economic structure and thus our prosperity.”
This involves both direct and indirect effects. The relocation of production facilities therefore hits not only industry hard, but also many other sectors in the service industry. “Added to this is the loss of know-how and reduced location attractiveness,” says Brossardt.
Demand: Improve Location Factors
As countermeasures, Brossardt recommends his association’s well-known demands: “Lower labor and energy costs, reduced taxes, and a determined reduction in bureaucracy are the central adjustment screws.”
Information: dpa
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