EU-28: steel industry employment 2020

Germany was the greatest employer within the European steel industry. A total of 83,200 people were employed in the German steel sector in 2020, making it over two and a half times the size of its nearest competitor – Italy.
A year earlier, the European Union (EU) made up only 8.5 percent of global crude steel production, whereas China – as the world’s largest producer – was responsible for over half of steel output alone. Cheap pricing and heavily increased manufacturing levels have made the industry particularly competitive.

Steel destinations

The construction sector was the greatest recipient of steel produced in the EU. Heavily reliant on the alloy metal for the assembly and maintenance of infrastructure projects, it accounted for 38 percent of all steel used in 2020. This put it ahead of the automotive and mechanical engineering industries. In total, the EU had produced some 157 million metric tons of crude steel in 2019.

European steel industry employment

Across all EU-28 countries, steel industry employment reached 326,462 people in 2020. This was lower than the figures recorded in 2019, marking a new decrease in the employment sector. The dip is indicative of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the steel and metal industry, with a decrease in steel consumption as a result of the economic downturn, in particular in the automotive sector.