Last year, 54,000 jobs disappeared in the European automotive industry. And that's just because of layoffs in the largest companies.
Times of crisis in the automotive industry have led to extensive layoffs. The largest companies in the European part of the industry said goodbye to a total of 54,000 employees last year.
Declining production and economic challenges have forced companies to cut back, according to a new report.
Clepa, the trade association for the automotive industry, has published a report showing the extent of the crisis.
In the report, Clepa documents the many layoffs that have taken place over the past year. Bosch alone has announced that the workforce, and thus the number of employees on the payroll, will be cut by 5,500 employees.
Subcontractor Webasto is struggling with a debt of 1 billion euros, and gearbox giant ZF is expected to find more than 40 billion kroner in savings over the next 5 to 6 years.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, car production in the EU has fallen by 20 percent. 86,000 jobs have disappeared from subcontractors in the same period.
– If demand does not increase and Europe regains its competitiveness, the wave of layoffs will continue for several more years, warns Clepa in a press release .
Audi is among the car brands that have made the most drastic cuts. In February, the brand closed its factory in Belgium. This means that more than 3,000 employees will soon be out of work.
The situation in the automotive industry is serious, and the many layoffs are evidence of an industry in crisis. However, not all parts of the industry are in bad shape. Or simply driving forward in reverse.
Boosted recently reported that Toyota is looking for at least 100 new people per month for a factory in France, and that there is an urgent need for 500 new jobs right now.
Chinese BYD is also gaining momentum. So much so, in fact, that in a period of just three months in 2024, the brand hired 200,000 new people.
And back in February of the same year, Aston Martin announced that it needed 400 new people for an equally new factory in the town of St Athan in Wales. For the British brand, it is the DBX and Vantage models in particular that are driving growth.
Here in Denmark, there is also a need for mechanics and employees in the automotive industry. But many of them have been vacuumed up by other industries. It is especially the youngest people on the job market who do not bother with the automotive industry. This was shown by a study back in May.
