In recent years, we’ve often heard that German auto giants are either closing businesses, laying off large-scale layoffs, or both. go through data According to data from the German Federal Statistics Office, in the first half of this year, the number of employees in the German automobile industry decreased by 42,300 compared with the same period last year.
Image source: ChatGPT.
According to the information provided, this key sector of the German economy employed 691,500 workers during the period, a decrease of 5.8% and the lowest level since 2005.
As so often happens, events unfolded for a variety of reasons. First, the German electric vehicle “revolution” started late and was unable to produce affordable, high-quality electric vehicles that could compete with similar products in China. Second, the Berlin-initiated severance of economic ties with Moscow has led to rising energy costs, naturally making German industrial products more expensive. Third, the United States, as one of the major export markets for the German automobile industry, imposes high tariffs on European products, resulting in a significant loss of its competitiveness in Europe.
So it turns out that businesses have to move to places where energy is cheap – China and the United States again – which is why we see the statistics from the beginning of this note. Of course, this is not a catastrophe, just that those Germans who associate their lives with the automobile industry will gradually have to retrain and master new professions more relevant to a forced post-industrial society. It’s inconvenient and unpleasant, but it doesn’t matter.
