German automotive business sheds 51,500 jobs in a yr – DW – 08/26/2025 | EUROtoday

German business’s regular decline in employment figures continues, with the nation’s prized vehicle business main the pack, in line with a brand new examine from accounting giants EY (previously referred to as Ernst & Young) primarily based on knowledge from the federal government’s statistics workplace.

EY recorded roughly 51,500 misplaced automotive business jobs within the area of a yr, equating to six.7% of the sector’s complete workforce. This made up nearly half of the 114,000 industrial jobs misplaced in the identical time interval.

The phenomenon additionally seems to be accelerating: Since 2019, earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly 112,000 carmaking jobs have been misplaced in Germany — nearly half of them prior to now 12 months.

The US and China each contributing to automotive business job cuts

The turnover of German industrial firms dipped by 2.1% within the second quarter of 2025, far more than the 0.3% unfavorable progress total. Only the electronics business improved turnover within the quarter, automotive firms’ revenues dipped by 1.6%.

Exports to the US, Germany’s largest single market, dipped by round 10%, with EY’s Jan Brohriker predicting that “improvement is not in sight” given President Donald Trump’s introduction of recent, barely greater tariffs — at 15% for vehicles.

But a pointy dip in exports to China can be impacting the automotive business. Long Germany’s second most profitable export market, China has slipped to sixth within the rankings, with a 14% year-on-year dip within the final quarter.

“The US and China are currently the cause of major concerns,” Brohriker mentioned. “The Chinese market was particularly attractive to the automobile industry for a long time, with very large margins. But in the meantime the wind has turned, particularly for foreign carmakers: demand is dropping drastically and turnover is collapsing.”

The EU and China have been engaged in a tariff battle of their very own lately, notably over China’s cheaper electrical vehicles, and the quickly rising Chinese automotive business is masking an increasing number of of home demand itself.

Why Germany’s on the middle of the belt-tightening

Major companies together with Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, Bosch, Continental, ZF, and Porsche have all launched cost-cutting applications — and infrequently these cutbacks begin near dwelling in Germany, not at overseas manufacturing services.

“Germany car companies and components manufacturers are reacting logically to the industry’s difficult situation with a savings drive,” EY’s Brohriker mentioned. “Massive profit reductions, excess production capacity and weakening export markets are making considerable job cuts unavoidable — particularly in Germany, where management, administration and R&D jobs are based.”

EY forecast that the falling job numbers would possible show an ongoing development, citing ongoing restructuring and price discount plans that will proceed to result in layoffs. It additionally forecast a tougher future for budding younger engineers leaving faculty or college.

“The car industry and machine engineering sector is hiring considerably fewer young people than in years past,” Brohriker mentioned. “The labor market for young engineers is getting uncomfortable, many will have to reorient themselves. We will see rising unemployment among university graduates, which Germany hasn’t experienced for a long time.”

Edited by: Wesley Dockery