Porsche on Tuesday became one of the few carmakers in the world to pay a bonus to employees this year, highlighting German industrial companies’ fear of losing their skilled workforces amid the economic crisis.

The German sports carmaker, which this summer agreed to be taken over by Volkswagen, is labouring under net debt of more than €9bn ($13.2bn) but said it would pay its 12,500 employees €1,100 each for the fiscal year that ended in July.