The global car market will have shrunk faster in 2019 than at the height of the financial crisis, with 4m fewer vehicles sold than last year, according to the lobby group for the German auto industry. The Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) warned of further job losses during the next 12 months, with an ongoing downturn in China. Rapid growth there helped the sector recover from the global recession a decade ago. Last week, Volkswagen brand Audi and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler axed 20,000 roles in total, citing the costs of investing in electric vehicles and reduced profits. Parts suppliers such as Continental and Bosch have also cut thousands of jobs.
“We have to expect a decrease in the size of the core workforce,” said Bernhard Mattes, the association’s outgoing president. Mr Mattes also pointed out that temporary employment contracts wer not being renewed, and that the lobby had observed a rise in short term work. Germany’s car industry directly employs about 830,000. The Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg Essen has predicted that the market will not return to its 2017 peal when 84.4m vehicles were sold, for at least another four years.
“The conversion of the industry to electromobility will lead to job losses, which cannot be offset by growth in the coming years,” said CAR’s Ferdinand Dudenhoffer, who predicts that about 233,000 jobs are at risk in Germany over the next decade.