Is the energy crisis that bad ? Are multiple industries affected right now or is it just planning ?
Nord Stream 1 has been shut down indefinitely and Germany requires it to keep their economy, heat and power supply going so lots more companies will follow.
My family is going to stock up on firewood for our fireplace soon, so at least the house will not be cold come november-december when the Netherlands will run out of their gas supply in just about 2 weeks time tops.
Regardless, panicking won't change the situation. Taking them time to step back, look at your other options, and proceed calmly (though with a sense of urgency) is a better way to go.
Hoarding euros? Converting to USD? $SPY? Gold? The same as always?
I will apply Occam's razor here - investors don't want to gamble their money on crappy software. SaaS vendors were playing on easy mode before 2022, but it's over for obvious reasons.
If you want to succeed, it's time to increase that engineering budget and let your sales people sell something that actually works.
But panick? not unless you live in the UK. I'd expect mainland EU to continue almost as usual, with maybe a few high-energy factories shutting down. But since most of the jobs are service sector anyway, I wouldn't worry too much.
I heard the news that in Germany a car part supplier started bankruptcy proceedings. But that's only 2000 jobs out of 84 million people. And all those coal and steel factories were only very few jobs, too.
You can drop contractors on a whim. And it seems that some studios are doing that.
At least mobile game studios are doing just fine, their main customers (whales) are in the US anyway.
Still, there is a lot of jobs, most of the people being laid off already have a job. I think we all are going to recover from this but RU.
The problem is that it's not limited to just one crisis:
1. Inflation - It turns out that you can't just keep printing money for about a year to pay for people not to work, and expect the currency to not suffer from inflation. It's a miracle it is not further inflated (although I might be speaking too soon). As inflation increases, your monthly pay becomes worth less whilst everything around you becomes more expensive.
2. Global recession - This is coming. The euro is now below the dollar and continues to fall. The dollar will crash soon too. Shorts are increasing by the day (open any stock graph).
3. Energy crisis - Companies are already looking to migrate away from the EU during winter. Those that stay will have to battle with high-priced, unreliable (read: rolling blackouts) energy supply. I would expect work-from-home becomes a requirement. I read that the EU are looking to subsidize energy and cap non-natural gas to 200 euros a MW, but this is doomed to fail.
4. Increased social issues - Lower quality of living, less funding for social programs, less funding for police, etc, will lead to higher crime. Schools have already said they will not be able to heat schools and therefore would have to send students home. Suddenly you have millions of bored teenagers whilst their parents are at work.
5. Food crisis - This one is yet to hit. There is a bill to pay for the energy crisis, droughts, fertilizer shortages, decreased global food supply, increased shipping costs and more. I suggest everybody start slowly (not panic) buying in some excess basics like rice and flour. Worst case, it's a bad prediction and you slowly use it over the next year. Worst case, it could serve as the base of your meals during hard times.
6. Strikes - People will want to strike, but this will likely only make things worse. We will see strikes from more and more critical roles, which will only further stall the economy and make recovery further away. If you don't believe in the power of a few people striking, jog your memory to the Canadian trucker strike. Believe it or not, it could be far worse.
7. Financial commitments - Europe won't be the first to fall and will likely be obligated to help out other Countries. For example, if the EU doesn't help with the Pakistani floods, these are potentially future asylum seekers, which will exasperate the situation. You also have financial commitments to military defense and the Ukraine-Russia war. As times get tougher, things will likely get worse.
8. War - The West (US + EU + friends) are currently heavily involved in international peace commitments. It is highly likely that Countries biding time will seize on the weakness of the West and further their own agenda. I expect to see China increase their timeline to invade Taiwan (this is a matter of pride and future financial + neighbor security). I would also suggest to watch Africa which is largely debt trapped. There are quite a few other places.
There are also quite a few other factors, but this is already too long. I highly suggest to take actions now to ensure basic survival.
I would expect job cuts in high cost locations to come first.
Since the rates were hiked, they are also the biggest victims. I doubt this has much to do with the energy and more with the recession.
Yes, panic.
prepare for the AI/robot apocalypse
The CDU sold us out to Russia, and it's not gonna change immediately. What we can do now is plan accordingly, and try to move to solar power as soon as possible. And by that I mean, yesterday.
Bills exploded for private households, social media shows regularly pictures of ridiculous bills like 1600EUR+ for a month of heat for a simple family household. That's where it's at right now. Lots of people laugh or mock at the plus of 18EUR/month for Kindergeld that you can now get, because it's basically worthless in comparison.
Prepare yourselves, this is going to be a war of cyber and energy. In my personal opinion it's inevitable, because Putin and his propaganda of the supposed "growing Nazism in Central Europe" has been going on for decades after the revolution attempt of the opposition. It's only a matter of time until Putin wants a strategically easier-to-defend Moscow, because the mountains in Poland and Finland sure look juicy to him.
Always keep in mind: Whoever controls the oil and gas supply, controls the planet economically. The reason for the invasion of the North-East Ukraine was the oil fields, and the independence of oil supply for Europe was too high a risk for Putin's strategical control over the European Union.
The demographic trend is what it is: baby boomers are retiring en masse and the influx of a new qualified employees is simply too low. Unemployment remains low. Jobs will be fine.