Germany’s Siemens to cut over 6,000 jobs worldwide
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Siemens has been struggling amid slowdowns in both China and Germany, Europe’s biggest economy.
PHOTO: IMAGO VIA REUTERS
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FRANKFURT - German industrial giant Siemens said on March 18 that it planned to cut more than 6,000 jobs worldwide due to weak demand and increasing competition in China and in its home market.
The reductions, about 2 per cent of Siemens’ global workforce, will mostly be made in the group’s factory automation unit, while a small number of positions will be lost in its electric vehicle charging business.
It is the biggest number of layoffs announced by Siemens since 2017, with 2,600 of the jobs being axed in Germany, although Siemens said it was still committed to its home country as a business location.
German industrial giants are pushing ahead with cost savings measures in response to weak demand and eroding profitability.
Volkswagen’s Audi on March 17 said it was cutting 7,500 jobs in administration.
Volkswagen itself has also unleashed a cost-cutting programme involving 35,000 job cuts, while Porsche plans to cut 3,900 jobs.
Siemens, whose sprawling global business runs from making trains and factory equipment to systems that manage data centres, has been struggling amid slowdowns in both China and Europe’s biggest economy, which has been mired in recession for the past two years.
About 5,600 of the job cuts will be made by 2027 in the automation business, which supplies robotics, other machinery and industrial software to factories, with about half the roles lost in Germany.
Problems in the automation unit hit Siemens’ earnings at the end of 2024, dragging quarterly operating profit down to €2.5 billion (S$3.6 billion) from €2.7 billion a year earlier.
In its vehicle charging business, the group plans to cut 450 positions from a total of 1,300 employed in the operation worldwide by the end of the current financial year.
With “limited growth potential for low-power charging stations”, Siemens said it planned to focus on areas like fast-charging infrastructure.
German carmakers and their suppliers alike have been facing severe headwinds due to a slowdown in demand for electric cars.
For employees affected by the layoffs in Germany, Siemens will seek to find some of them new roles within the group. Some jobs will also be lost through people retiring.
At the end of 2024, Siemens employed about 313,000 people worldwide, including about 86,000 in Germany. AFP, BLOOMBERG
