Skilled labour shortage continues to be the key challenge in the Euro area
At the end of 2025, turnover and profits of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have increased. By contrast, investment activity, which had increased over the course of 2025, showed a slight decline towards the year-end.
Researchers at the IfM Bonn draw on the pan-European “Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises” (SAFE), which has been conducted since 2009 on behalf of the European Commission and the European Central Bank, to report twice a year on the current economic situation and key challenges facing SMEs in Germany and selected EU countries.
Skilled labour shortage continues to be the main challenge
Both in Germany and across the euro area, the skilled labour shortage remains the greatest challenge for SMEs. In Germany, it is followed by “customer acquisition”, “production and labour costs”, and “regulation”.
In the euro area, the challenge of “production and labour costs” became less relevant in the third quarter, while SMEs increasingly view “regulation” as a key problem. Overall, however German business leaders still, consider regulation to be a far more significant challenge than their counterparts across the euro area.
