More than 8,000 job cuts planned by another top German manufacturer
London
CNN
—
Thousands of jobs are on the chopping block at German industrial giant Bosch in yet another blow to the country's beleaguered economy.
A spokesperson for the company told CNN Wednesday that it plans to cut a total of 8,250 jobs globally over the coming years. The axe will fall in what it calls its Mobility business sector, which supplies parts to automakers around the world, as the business grapples with sluggish demand, high costs and intensifying competition.
"The difficult economic environment and the ongoing transformation in the automotive industry are presenting us, like other companies, with major challenges. It is important for us to remain competitive under these conditions," Bosch said in a statement.
"The mobility sector is undergoing a profound transformation," the company added.
The planned cuts, some of which were announced earlier this year, represent almost 2% of Bosch's global workforce, which totaled just over 429,000 at the end of 2023.
The 138-year-old firm also makes a raft of consumer goods, including refrigerators and coffee machines, as well as machinery for other companies.
A worker assembles heat pumps for residential buildings at a Bosch factory in April 2023 in Eschenburg, Germany.
Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images
The news represents yet another knock to Europe's biggest economy, where storied manufacturers face a perfect storm of competition from Chinese rivals, traditional disadvantages such as steep labor costs and high taxes and energy costs driven higher by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Last week, tens of thousands of workers at Volkswagen, Germany's largest manufacturer, took part in strikes at plants across the country. The industrial action followed weeks of collective bargaining talks, with Volkswagen refusing to rule out mass layoffs and plant closures in Germany, drastic measures that it says are necessary to prop up its fortunes.
Last month, Thyssenkrupp, Germany's largest steel producer, announced plans to cut 11,000 jobs by the end of the decade, equivalent to roughly 40% of its workforce. The company cited, in part, a rise in cheap imports from Asia.
Germany's economy shrank last year for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. It is set to contract again this year, according to the latest forecasts from the European Union's executive body, the European Commission.
