Luxury car maker Porsche has announced plans to cut almost 2,000 jobs over the next five years.
German sportscar manufacturer Porsche on Thursday said it was planning to cut some 1,900 jobs at two plants in Germany by 2029.
The Stuttgart-based company is making the cuts on top of existing job losses for temporary employees, with staff being reduced by about 15% in total.
How is Porsche planning to shed staff?
The company said its main plant in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and a secondary location in Weissach would be affected.
The job cuts are to be completed by 2029, human resources manager Andreas Haffner and works council chairman Harald Buck told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspaper.
A part-time retirement scheme for employees born in 1970 and older, restraint in hiring new employees, and the normal entry of employees into retirement were expected to contribute to the job cuts.
Employees would be guaranteed employment until 2030, the automaker said, with redundancies for operational reasons ruled out until then and the company meanwhile relying on voluntary redundancies.
The move comes in addition to already-planned staff cuts at the sites, with Porsche announcing last year that it would not be extending some 2,000 temporary contracts.
Why is Porsche cutting worker numbers?
The company justified its measures with a nod to difficult economic conditions.
“We are still in a comparatively good position,” Haffner said. “But we have a variety of challenges to overcome — for example, the delayed ramp-up of electromobility or the challenging geopolitical and economic conditions.”
Traditionally a manufacturing and export-heavy economy, German products have suffered from decreased demand both at home and abroad.
The number of unemployed people in Germany reached almost three million in January, the highest figure since January 2015.
