German autos sector slashes jobs as economic woes bite
On June 4, 2025, Rastatt is a general view of production lines in the Mercedes-Benz Assembly facility in Germany.
Florian Wiegand | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A perfect industry and economic difficulty storm focused on Germany’s automobile industry, which has been working tens of thousands of work for a year until the end of June.
During this period, Germany’s automobile industry, one of the largest sectors in the European country, saw business cuts in close to 7% of the labor force or approximately 51,500 positions. analysis Based on the data of the German Statistics Office Destatis from EY.
According to the study, general business losses in the German industry said that this year is about 114,000 up to 12 months. The figures show that almost half of the interruptions emerged by the automobile sector.
According to the CNBC translation, the report said, “No other industrial sector has made such a strong decrease in employment.” He said. The study marked 112,000 work in the automobile sector compared to the 2019 period before the Covid-19 pandem.
Jan Bornilker, the executive partner of the EY Assurance Department in Germany, said in a press release that business discounts responded to the difficult situation of the German automobile industry.
According to the CNBC translation, “Large profit drops, excessive capacities and patient foreign markets make it impossible to prevent significant reduction.” He said.
EY’s report also said that revenues in the sector withdrew 1.6% in the second quarter of 2025. The German automobile giant Volkswagen, the first, reported a sharp decrease in the second quarter snow and reduced full -year guidance.
The decline in the automobile sector is a decrease in a smaller than 2.1% of the revenues faced by the general German industry.
Assembly struggles
Germany’s automobile industry has fought with many challenges, such as China’s competition on costs and innovations. Electric vehicle race attributed to federal government bureaucracy and regulation by some car manufacturers and analysts.
US President Donald Trump’s trade policy contributed to concerns. Germany and especially the automobile sector considers largely export -oriented and the US as one of the biggest markets in which the label ‘Made in Germany’ is seen as a historical quality sign.
Desatis’s latest data showed that automatic and automatic exports to the US decreased by 8.6% in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year. Automobile manufacturers have repeatedly warned the potential impact of tariffs and the uncertainty around it.
After the emergence of the details of the US-EU trade agreement at the beginning of this month, the industry can enjoy some relief. Cars will be subject to 15% tasks, but only after making legislation changes to reduce industrial taxes.
The general economy of the province of Germany has been a head wind for the automobile sector, and the annual gross domestic product of the country has decreased in both 2023 and 2024. This year It also seems to be a slow start: Europe’s largest economy has decreased by 0.3% for the second quarter after the largest economy has grown by 0.3% in the first quarter.
When we look forward, Bornilker says he expects German automobile exports to both the US and China to be under pressure, and the first is expected from tariffs and the second by weakening the demand, a domestic problem.
“As various German industrial giants are currently entering restructuring or cost reduction programs,” the number of industrial affairs will continue to decrease, “he said.
