Germany Major layoffs
Germany announced 125,000 industrial job cuts in 6 weeks.
Putting that into perspective... If the U.S. got hit at the same rate, that’s like ~300,000 factory jobs or ~500,000 total jobs gone in a month and a half.
Picture every factory worker in a state like South Carolina unemployed. That’s the scale.
Recent layoffs announced in Germany:
Auto & Auto Supplier Layoffs (past 12 months): • Volkswagen: 35,000 • Mercedes-Benz: 40,000 • Audi: 7,500 • Ford (Saarlouis): 2,900 • Daimler Truck: 5,000 • ZF Group: 14,000 • Bosch, Continental, Schaeffler (combined): 7,000 → Total: 111,400 auto jobs impacted
Steel & Heavy Industry Layoffs: • Thyssenkrupp: 11,000 (≈40% of workforce)
Rail & Transport Layoffs: • Deutsche Bahn: 30,000 • DB Cargo (subsidiary): 5,000
Postal & Logistics Layoffs: • Deutsche Post: 8,000
Banking & Finance Layoffs: • Commerzbank: 3,900
Tech (Germany-specific cuts) Layoffs: • SAP: 3,500 (10,000 global)
MAJOR implications globally from all of this - so don't brush it off as just German layoffs... And no one’s talking about
The German economy is in doldrums and most fear that they would never recover. China has heavily been focussing on heavy engineering manufacturing for over two decades now, with their government pouring trillions into R&D. This resulted in Chinese companies being able to sell their products at a much competitive price point, which the Germans cannot afford to do..
