According to official government statistics, the German car industry is shedding jobs faster than any other sector. And the real employee realignment under the pressure of the current crisis still has to begin.
Destatis, the Federal Statistical Office, analyzed that 691,500 people were employed in the German automotive industry at the end of June 2026. That is the smallest headcount since 2005.
In just twelve months, 42,300 positions evaporated, a 5.8 percent contraction. No other major German industrial sector with more than 200,000 employees is bleeding jobs this fast.
Ripping through
Manufacturing in Germany is generally in rough shape and shrank by 2.7 percent overall. This means the automotive industry is shedding workers at more than double that rate. Destatis itself warns that the count leaves out tire makers, which means the real damage is even larger.
A detailed breakdown shows that car and engine makers cut 6.1 percent of their workforce. Parts and accessories suppliers slashed 7.6 percent. Only the niche segment of bodywork, superstructures, and trailers grew, adding 10 percent. When the latter is the only part of the industry that expands, you know the powertrain transition is ripping through the established order.
These numbers don’t come from a one-time collapse of an industry giant. Clearly, the German supplier ecosystem in the auto sector is being dismantled. This was, of course, already signaled by announced job cuts earlier this year and won’t stop anywhere soon.
Long list of job cuts
The Volkswagen Group is at the center of the shake-up and has confirmed programs that will eliminate at least 50,000 positions across its German brands. Audi is cutting up to 7,500 indirect roles, mostly white-collar, by 2029.
Porsche has agreements covering roughly 8,900 jobs in total. BMW is now targeting several thousand positions in Germany by the end of 2027, with global workforce reductions potentially reaching 8,000.
Mercedes-Benz has absorbed about 5,500 voluntary departures. Ford is cutting 2,900 jobs in Germany and has already reduced its Cologne EV plant to a single shift.
The supplier side is not faring much better. Bosch is aiming to eliminate roughly 13,000 positions, mainly in German mobility operations, by 2030. ZF is working toward 11,000 to 14,000 cuts in Germany from a domestic workforce of about 54,000.
Schaeffler has announced around 2,800 reductions in Germany, while Continental is trimming thousands of positions across R&D and industrial operations. The suppliers are taking the biggest hit.
Eastern Europe wins
The industry lobby VDA issued a warning earlier this year. The sector could have 225,000 fewer jobs in 2035 than in 2019. About 100,000 of those have already vanished. That leaves another 125,000 at risk between now and 2035.
Apparently, the effects on job continuation from the electric transition are more profound than originally estimated: at first, the lobby group accounted for 190,000 lost positions compared with 2019, but the updated forecast underscores that Germany is not creating enough new employment in batteries, software and EV assembly domestically. Those opportunities are increasingly landing in other countries.
So, there is also a geographical split within those numbers. The EU has actually added roughly 460,000 vehicle-making jobs since 2010, but almost all of that growth landed in Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Sweden.
Western Europe is surrendering posts while Central and Eastern Europe gains them. At the same time, China is capturing the new technology roles that German policymakers assumed would stay local. As Europe’s automotive heavyweight, Germany is losing its grip on keeping its lead.
