Laboratory sector in crisis mode

While economic expectations for the next 6 months in spring 2022 were still at an average value of 0.2, they have now fallen to -0.3. Although half of the companies surveyed expect sales to remain the same, the industry average expects sales to fall by 3.7%.

Only the market segments laboratory medicine (0.1), medical devices (0.2) and pharmaceutical tests (0.2) show positive expectations on average, while the market segments „consumer protection & Food“ (-0.1), Environmental Analysis (-0.2), „Physical Measurements & Calibration“ (-0.1) and Industrial Analysis (-0.1) show a negative trend reversal compared to spring 2022.

Investments are being scaled back
A sector-wide decline (-0.1) can be seen in laboratory companies' willingness to invest in all market segments. Savings are currently being made in particular in the areas of analyses, plant technology, real estate and advertising. Only in the IT sector is there still a moderate willingness to invest (0.3). However, this is significantly lower than the propensity to invest in IT determined in spring 2022 (0.7).

Staffing situation remains tense
In the current survey, the demand for staff is slightly lower than in spring 2022. In contrast, the supply of skilled labour is still rated as poor at -0.9 (on a scale of -2 to +2) and will continue to pose major challenges for the laboratory sector in the future.

Staffing situation remains tense
In the current survey, the demand for staff is slightly lower than in spring 2022. In contrast, the supply of skilled labour is still rated as poor at -0.9 (on a scale of -2 to +2) and will continue to pose major challenges for the laboratory sector in the future.

The situation on the energy and materials markets
In connection with the current VUP economic barometer survey, aspects of dealing with the energy crisis and the increasingly poor availability of laboratory materials were also highlighted. According to the survey, a clear majority of the laboratory companies surveyed rate the current situation on the energy markets (79%) and the availability of laboratory materials (64%) as worrying. In a special publication, the VUP will address these crisis situations and analyse and present the reactions of companies in more detail.

Further information
Here you can find the most important figures and charts of the economic barometer11/2022.

The survey
The VUP Economic Barometer is conducted every six months by the German Association of Independent Testing and Calibration Laboratories (VUP) among testing and calibration laboratories. More information on this and the results of the latest editions of the VUP economic barometer can be found here .

Source: LABO from 17 November 2022