Consulting industry in Hamburg – Sector overview

As a major port and economic metropolis with a global reputation, Hamburg has developed into a centre for North German consulting firms. The Hanseatic city of Hamburg is among the top consulting cities in Germany – according to the German Consulting Association (Bundesverband Deutscher Unternehmensberater BDU), with a 5.7 percent share of the whole market Hamburg generated more revenue in 2014 than the whole of Eastern Germany (excluding Berlin).

Despite being the capital city and having almost twice the number of inhabitants, Berlin has a slightly smaller share of the total market (5.5 percent, BDU Facts & Figures 2014/15). The diverse consulting industry represents a significant part of Hamburg’s economy. Around 11,500 companies belong to our Chamber of Commerce consulting group. Alongside over 6,000 traditional business and management consultants, they also include, for example, market and public opinion research companies, PR consultants, M&A consultants as well as auditors and recruitment consultants.

Source: Hamburg Chamber of Commerce

The Hamburg economic barometer gives regular updates on the economic situation in Hamburg as a whole and for selected sectors of the economy. Business confidence (an average value taken from assessments of the current and future business situation) among Hamburg PR and business consultants stands on average at 124.8 (2013 to 2016) and is therefore significantly higher than the Hamburg economy as a whole with a value of 113.9 (2013 to 2016). However, business confidence within the Hamburg consulting industry deteriorated significantly at the end of the first quarter of 2016 in comparison to a survey carried out in the previous quarter. This was evidently due to a temporary slowdown at the beginning of the year (as in the previous two years) – in the second quarter of 2016, the consultants assessed business confidence as being significantly more positive again.

Company representatives present the requirements of the consulting industry in the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, not only in its most important body the Plenum, but also in the Committee for the Service Economy.

Report from the meeting of the Committee on 17 July 2017: The Committee meeting in July took place at the Casino Hamburg and focused on the topic “Work 4.0.” Mr. Heyden, CEO of the jobcenter team.arbeit.hamburg, reported on the developments of Hamburg’s labour market resulting from the digital change in the industries. Moreover, this was the first meeting for Ute Schoras as the new chairperson of this Committee. She is Chief Executive Officer of JOBPOWER Personaldienstleistungs GmbH.