When the need for specialists to provide growth and innovation is added, the Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft’s estimates even assume a lack of 1.4 million employees with STEM qualifications by 2020. According to scientific calculations every non-staffed STEM job causes a loss of value creation of 230,000 euros a year.

But the German Mittelstand is not only investing in machinery but also in people: about 12 per cent of companies are spending money on acquiring skilled labour and 48 per cent of the companies surveyed want to increase staffing levels. If the course of investments goes to plan around 986,000 new jobs would thus be created in the coming twelve months.

In the first quarter of 2013 mechanical engineers’ business went better with South East Asia (plus 5.3 per cent), Saudi Arabia (plus 9.2 per cent) and Turkey (plus 8.9 per cent). Exports to North African countries also achieved higher rates of increase again.

In the opinion of China experts these developments are evidence that the Chinese domestic economy is not in a position to compensate for falling international demand for goods from manufacturing industry.

The DIW Berlin remains optimistic for 2013: the institute expects continuing positive impulses from abroad, primarily from emerging markets. In the course of the year this should cause companies to use the cheap financing conditions to invest in equipment. The DIW Berlin expects noticeable growth in economic output, primarily in the second half of the year.

The various PMI sub-indices all declined in April. The downwards trend was particularly noticeable in purchasing prices. They fell to the lowest level since August 2009. Many raw materials became noticeably cheaper, especially steel and products based on crude oil. For the first time in three months industrial companies have also granted lower price discounts on their finished products. In the opinion of DIHK Chief Economist Dr Alexander Schumann, the clear decline in the PMI strengthened the picture of a weak start to the year with a subdued outlook for the rest of the year.

Analogously, according to the Bonn Institute for Mittelstand Research, at 346,000 last year there were also significantly fewer business start-ups than in 2011 (401,000). The DIHK sees the main reason for this decline to be the positive labour market development in Germany. Many people are thus remaining in permanent employment rather than taking the plunge into the uncertain path of self-employment. The DIHK expects the trend will also continue this year and that the number of start-ups in 2013 will be below the 2012 figure.

The IfM results also prove that SMEs – and niche providers above all – compensate for fluctuations in demand on domestic markets with export activities, thus stabilising employment. It is, however, large Mittelstand companies that are primarily active on foreign markets. In the IfM’s opinion this also confirms the basic assumption that tapping new markets contributes to reducing costs – and is thus interesting for companies above a certain size.

The balance of good and poor assessments of the business situations totals plus 47.1 points. This is the third highest level in the past ten years. In the good marks service companies lead the sector field with 55.3 per cent. In retail only 45 per cent of companies gave a good mark. Sales rose at a good fifth of SMEs; last year this was only the case at a quarter. In contrast, 28.6 per cent recorded a decline.

Capital resources in the German Mittelstand have also developed positively: for the first time in the Creditreform survey the proportion of companies with an equity ratio of more than 30 per cent of the balance sheet total was higher than the proportion of businesses with an equity ratio of below 10 per cent – 32.8 compared to 28.3 per cent. In manufacturing industry 40.7 per cent of businesses have an equity ratio of more than 30 per cent. In the construction sector, which traditionally tends to be weak in equity, there has been considerable growth from 15.2 to 20.7 per cent.

The important early indicator for economic activity fell by 1.3 points on the previous month to 49.0, thus sliding below the growth threshold of 50 points again. The March value is the weakest EMI quotation for three months and is below the long-term average of 51.9. “The difficult situation in Sothern Europe is creating uncertainty in many German companies. It’s also leading to a darkening in the investment mood,” emphasised BME Chief Executive Officer Holger Hildebrandt. In contrast, falling purchasing prices, which are relieving companies on the costs side, are giving reasons for hope.