A noticeable decline in employment in the sector has been recorded for the second consecutive year.
The crisis in the automotive industry in Germany is deepening, writes Welt. The number of job vacancies in the sector decreased by 15% in 2025, and companies are planning major staff cuts: tens of thousands of jobs are at risk. Volkswagen is cutting tens of thousands of jobs in Germany. Mercedes is enticing employees with a generous voluntary departure program, and Bosch is also reducing its workforce.
A noticeable decline has been recorded for the second consecutive year. This correlates with the plans of many major players in the industry to reduce staff. For instance, Volkswagen intends to eliminate about 35,000 jobs in Germany by 2030. Mercedes offers up to 500,000 euros under its voluntary departure program to save 1 billion euros on personnel by 2027. Daimler Truck plans to cut around 5,000 positions by 2030, while MAN aims to reduce its workforce by 2,300 people in the coming years.
Against the backdrop of sluggish car sales, suppliers have also entered cost-cutting mode. Bosch recently announced a reduction of 13,000 employees, while its competitor ZF is discussing comparable scales.
This does not mean that companies reducing their workforce have no job vacancies at all. Not all divisions are in the same position. However, job postings can indicate where exactly the cuts are happening. For example, market leader Volkswagen is eliminating entire management levels.
Berlin is becoming a center for automotive technologies.
New opportunities are emerging in other regions: in Berlin and Brandenburg, the number of job vacancies increased by 3% and 6%, respectively. This again confirms that the construction of the Tesla factory in Grünheide has been a success for the local labor market.
It is not only Americans who are turning the capital region into a center for automotive technologies. For instance, Volkswagen recently opened a new headquarters for its IT division Cariad in Berlin. The labor market in Hamburg has seen the most significant growth, albeit from a lower base, with a 13% increase in job vacancies.
Growth in the industry is hardly noticeable in new manufacturing directions. The concept of a "programmable car" has long ceased to be mere words: automotive companies have created large divisions for software production, and several suppliers, including Bosch, have done the same. Nevertheless, even in this segment, the number of job vacancies has decreased by 9%. This is less than in other sectors. For example, the number of purchasing positions has fallen by a fifth. Cost-cutting is particularly impacting "central vacancies": the demand for HR specialists and production controllers has also significantly decreased. However, the job market for salespeople and sales specialists has remained almost unchanged.
A worrying signal for the future of the industry is that despite technological progress, the number of job postings in research and development has decreased by a third.
There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the demand for electric vehicles is lower than expected, and the production of planned models is being postponed. Secondly, some developments are being moved abroad. Recently, Volkswagen announced that its development center in China is now capable of independently designing new car models without assistance from Europe.
