Estimate: A day of strikes in Germany could cost 2.5 billion euros

A one-day strike involving one fifth of employees could cost the German economy about 2.5 billion euros, according to a rough estimate based on Eurostat data. As reported by N1, citing Euronews, the reason for comparing the economic consequences of strikes in Europe is the announced work stoppage in Spain.

Spanish unions Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the General Union of Workers (UGT) have called for a one-day general strike on Wednesday, November 11, ahead of the snap parliamentary elections scheduled for November 29. Among the main demands are more accessible housing, wages that keep pace with rising prices, and better quality public services.

This is the first joint strike by the two largest union federations in Spain since 2012, when the country was in an economic and budgetary crisis. France held a national day of strikes and protests over the cost of living on November 5, the Italian union CGIL has announced a general strike for November 20, and Belgian unions have threatened a work stoppage during the week beginning November 23.

Preliminary data from the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), a research center based in Brussels, show that 2025 was the year with the most strikes in the European Union since 1991.

In comparing costs, analysts divided each country’s annual gross domestic product by 365, then assumed that one fifth of employees participate in the strike and that approximately one fifth of daily production is lost as a result. By this calculation, after Germany come France with 1.6 billion and Italy with about 1.2 billion euros in estimated losses.

For Spain, the estimated loss would amount to about 930 million euros. Its GDP in 2025 was 1.69 trillion euros, or approximately 4.6 billion euros per day.

A work stoppage of the same scale would cost Belgium about 350 million euros, Portugal approximately 170 million, and Croatia about 52 million euros. The actual effects depend on the sectors affected: strikes often particularly impact transportation, education, and public services, while many factories and offices continue to operate.

The estimated loss of production does not necessarily mean a permanent loss for the economy, as some activities are made up in the following weeks or months. The French central bank estimated that strikes against pension reform in March and April 2023 slowed growth in the first quarter by about 0.1 percentage points, but a recovery of approximately the same magnitude was recorded in the second quarter.

The French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) concluded that social protests in the spring of 2018 reduced GDP by about 0.1 percentage points. Delayed freight transport, inspections, or factory production can be carried out later, but some losses cannot be recovered: workers lose a day’s pay, the state loses tax revenue from unrealized activity, and airlines and hotels lose income from canceled flights and unfilled rooms.

According to ETUI data, in Belgium in 2025, 1,354,845 working days were lost due to strikes, or 313 per 1,000 employees. This surpassed the previous record of 299 days, recorded in 1993.

In neighboring the Netherlands, 23 strikes during 2025 led to the loss of almost 60,000 working days, according to data from the local statistics office. The German Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI) estimated the loss in Germany at about 645,000 days, which is below the long-term average, even though the German economy is almost seven times larger than Belgium’s. Unlike a one-off stoppage, frequent strikes can cause more lasting disruptions to the economy.

In Spain, the response to a general strike is also estimated based on electricity consumption. During the stoppage in November 2012, demand in the early morning hours was 11.4 percent lower than usual for that time of day, the Ministry of the Interior announced at the time, based on data from the grid operator Red Electrica. In March of the same year, the drop was 15.4 percent.

Electricity consumption data are also expected now among the first indicators of turnout, while unions and the government subsequently publish their own estimates, which often differ significantly. The impact on air traffic is still not entirely clear: on Monday, the government did not announce the minimum number of flights during the stoppage, even though airport and airline employees are also included in the strike.