STUTTGART/HANNOVER (dpa-AFX) - According to a survey, numerous jobs in the German automotive industry are on the brink of redundancy. More than half of the companies surveyed in the sector are planning to cut jobs in Germany, according to a survey of managers in the industry conducted by management consultants Horváth. The main reasons for this are high cost pressure and new competition, particularly from China.

59% of the companies surveyed stated that they expected to reduce the number of employees in Germany over the next five years, with 14% even expecting a significant reduction. In contrast, only 15 percent expected to increase their workforce.

The situation was hardly any better in the rest of Western Europe, where 53% of respondents were planning to cut jobs. Companies in Germany and Western Europe continued to invest heavily. However, new jobs are being created elsewhere.

Jobs are moving abroad

"Production is increasingly taking place in the regions where the cars are ultimately sold," says Frank Goller, Partner and automotive expert at Horváth, to the German Press Agency. "This is not new, but it has intensified." The bad experiences of recent years with supply bottlenecks, especially for semiconductors, have not changed this. "This process is continuing to accelerate. With the result that jobs are relocating."

As a result, staff are being hired almost everywhere in the world - except in Germany and Western Europe. According to the survey, 75 percent of the companies surveyed want to build up capacity in India, 60 percent in China and just as many in Eastern Europe. There are also signs of growth in the rest of Asia, as well as in North and South America.

"New plants are rarely built in Germany," notes Goller. "When new plants are built, it's usually outside Germany. And that's also where the increase in employment takes place."

Overcapacity increases cost pressure

Nevertheless, the majority of investments continue to flow to Germany. "If you only look at the companies with headquarters in Germany, you can at least see that A quarter of the total investments of all globally active companies continue to flow here," says Goller. That is significantly more than in any other region of the world.

However, the money is mainly going into new products and technologies and the conversion of existing sites to electric drives. "In production, there is a high level of investment in the automation of production facilities and digitalization." The employment balance is correspondingly poor.

"We are not seeing Germany being reduced to a pure development location," emphasizes Goller. "Many companies, especially the large corporations, are still committed to Germany as a location and to the factories here."

However, many of the factories in Germany and Europe are already operating at far less than full capacity. The cost pressure is correspondingly high, to which many manufacturers are responding with cost-cutting programs and job cuts.

For the study, management consultants Horváth interviewed 91 managers from the industry in individual interviews last quarter, 55 of whom were from Germany. More than half of the interviewees came from car manufacturers, the rest from suppliers, large dealerships and mobility providers. Although the selection is not representative, it is nevertheless meaningful due to the large number, says Goller./fjo/DP/zb