Toyota Will Cut 3,000 Jobs in Japan as Car Sales Fall

[steinravnik]

Toyota Will Cut 3,000 Jobs in Japan as Car Sales Fall



Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's biggest carmaker, will cut its domestic temporary workforce by 50 percent as vehicle demand slumps globally.

Toyota will cut the number of temporary workers to 3,000 from 6,000 by the end of March, spokesman Paul Nolasco said today in a phone interview.

The automaker follows Mazda Motor Corp. and Isuzu Motors Ltd., which yesterday said they would slash a combined 2,700 temporary jobs in Japan in response to slowing sales. Earlier this month, Toyota forecast a 68 percent drop in full-year net income, the biggest decline in at least 18 years, as a global recession cripples auto demand.

``Falling export demand is having a big impact on production in Japan,'' said Hirofumi Yokoi, a Tokyo-based analyst at automotive consulting company CSM Worldwide. ``It's unlikely plants will get shut down, but if things get worse, lines, shifts will have to be stopped and plans for new factories will be delayed.''

Japanese companies, which focused on hiring easy-to-fire contract workers during the 15 years of lackluster economic growth that followed the bursting of the bubble economy in 1990, are now shedding them as the global recession cuts demand. Temporary and part-time workers make up 33 percent of Japan's workforce, up from 20 percent in 1991, according to the Labor Ministry.

Honda, Nissan

Honda Motor Co., Japan's second-largest carmaker, also said today it is cutting 270 temporary workers at its Saitama plant, where the carmaker is reducing output of Accord sedans by 40,000 units. Honda is also cutting production in the U.K. of Civic compacts and CR-V sport-utility vehicles by 21,000 units.

Nissan Motor Co. said last week it will reduce its domestic production by an additional 72,000 units. Japan's third-largest automaker had its credit rating cut one notch today by Fitch Ratings, which cited the company's dependence on the weak U.S. auto market and an appreciation of the yen.

Toyota gained 4.6 percent to 3,080 yen at the close of trading today in Tokyo. The shares have dropped 49 percent this year, set for the worst annual performance since at least 1975.

Credit Crunch

The credit crunch has crippled U.S. vehicle sales, forcing General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC to seek a combined $25 billion in U.S. government loans as they burn through cash. U.S. unemployment claims for the week ended Nov. 15 surged to the highest since 1992 as Americans filed 542,000 initial jobless claims.

Japan's exports declined at the fastest pace in almost seven years in October, and Toyota's U.S. sales plunged 23 percent last month.

Toyota, heading for its first drop in U.S. sales in 13 years, will extend the Christmas-New Year closure at its U.S. and Canadian plants by two days. The carmaker will also cut Sienna minivan output in Indiana by half in January and slow one of two Georgetown, Kentucky, factory lines.

While no full-time employees will be laid off, the company will eliminate at least 50 percent of its 500 temporary workers at the Georgetown plant during the first three months of 2009.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...qg4&refer=home

[91 s-10baja]

"can you feel it baby...I can tooo"

[zete]

Gotta love how Toyota can manipulate the media. No layoffs of full time staff, but all those temporary workers are bye-bye. Great PR.

[Gung_Ho]

Originally Posted by zete

Gotta love how Toyota can manipulate the media. No layoffs of full time staff, but all those temporary workers are bye-bye. Great PR.

Toyota employs over 300,000 people. 3,000 temporary employees being cut is peanuts.

If your business employed 100 people, and 1 temporary employee was cut, would that be a sign of your business going down the tubes? Of course not.

[likearock00]

Great- that just saved them like $300 in annual wages.

I'm just happy the jobs are in Japan and not from the plants they have here in the US. We don't need anymore losses here!

[Kennyboy]

Originally Posted by likearock00

Great- that just saved them like $300 in annual wages.

I'm just happy the jobs are in Japan and not from the plants they have here in the US. We don't need anymore losses here!

Does it make a difference if those jobs losses are in Japan or the US? Either way, we're in a recession and it will only get worse then getting better.

[03xtreme]

Originally Posted by Gung_Ho

Toyota employs over 300,000 people. 3,000 temporary employees being cut is peanuts.

If your business employed 100 people, and 1 temporary employee was cut, would that be a sign of your business going down the tubes? Of course not.

take nothing at face value, there is more to this than meets they eye, there are yota workers picking up garbage in parks. yota is spending millions retraining....

glad they have the profit to do that, must be the inflated prices they charge, seeing how they have no legacy costs and 50% cheaper labor, i mean whats the math on that profit.

darn, they let go some subsidized workers.... good take your subsidized plants back to your dinky island so we can put americans back to work at real wages, scums.

[Gung_Ho]

Originally Posted by 03xtreme

take nothing at face value, there is more to this than meets they eye, there are yota workers picking up garbage in parks. yota is spending millions retraining....

glad they have the profit to do that, must be the inflated prices they charge, seeing how they have no legacy costs and 50% cheaper labor, i mean whats the math on that profit.

darn, they let go some subsidized workers.... good take your subsidized plants back to your dinky island so we can put americans back to work at real wages, scums.

If Toyota paid their employees what you call "real" wages, then they'd be where GM is today.

Toyota does pay high wages for assembly-line work, but they don't have to considering that any uneducated drop-out could do assembly-line work for any automaker.

[AMERICA 123]

Originally Posted by zete

Gotta love how Toyota can manipulate the media. No layoffs of full time staff, but all those temporary workers are bye-bye. Great PR.

Yep.

There has been at least another 10 - 12 significant and 'negative' announcements concerning Toyota that have been ignored the same way - including some other layoffs.

The biggest one recently is the Prius is now officially on indefinite hold for India.

[zete]

Originally Posted by Gung_Ho

Toyota employs over 300,000 people. 3,000 temporary employees being cut is peanuts.

If your business employed 100 people, and 1 temporary employee was cut, would that be a sign of your business going down the tubes? Of course not.

They have 300,000 workers in the US?

The way I look at this is that folks I know claim Toyota doesn't lay people off. If the economy keeps tanking then full time staff will be let go. Toyota NA did lose $353M last half and Toyota's closing lines longer than expected for Christmas. Toyota's not immune, they just have more cash but they're not going to burn through it if they figure they'll need it to prop up parts suppliers if GM goes under.

[Gung_Ho]

Originally Posted by zete

They have 300,000 workers in the US?

The way I look at this is that folks I know claim Toyota doesn't lay people off. If the economy keeps tanking then full time staff will be let go. Toyota NA did lose $353M last half and Toyota's closing lines longer than expected for Christmas. Toyota's not immune, they just have more cash but they're not going to burn through it if they figure they'll need it to prop up parts suppliers if GM goes under.

No, Toyota has approximately 300,000 worldwide.

[63GrandSport001]

Originally Posted by Gung_Ho

If Toyota paid their employees what you call "real" wages, then they'd be where GM is today.

Toyota does pay high wages for assembly-line work, but they don't have to considering that any uneducated drop-out could do assembly-line work for any automaker.

From my understanding they pay their Japanese workers about what GM pays its American workers, the difference in pay comes from health care cost at GM which we all know have been increasing greatly over the past few years. In Japan they have universal health care and it doesn't matter if you agree with the idea or not you have to accept the fact that this gives Toyota a edge when it comes to cost. Not only do they not have to worry about the costs of its current employees but it also doesn't have to worry about the cost of retirees as well.

Another thing that GM has making things worse for it is the fact that its so old, it was big infact its been the biggest automaker in the world for around 70 years. It was building cars in massive numbers back when it took a lot more people to do so and as technology has improved they have needed less and less workers to get the job done. This has lead to retirement and early retirement in many cases as they no longer need that many workers to do the same job. I believe that GM once had about 600,000 workers building its cars and trucks in America and today thats down to what 75,000?.

However we have to note that this is partly because GM was closing plants in America and opening plants in other nations. We shouldn't accept slave wages in America and as a result we should not bend to the demands of a automaker who moves plants to countries that has exactly that.

This isn't just about GM, Ford, and Chrysler though as they all use parts suppliers to supply them with many parts instead of doing those in house. The auto makers have been squeezing their suppliers to give them ever lower prices or there is a risk they may go with another supplier instead. And with reduced orders for parts for many suppliers a ton of them have gone under as a result of this.

[gypsygirl5]

Originally Posted by 03xtreme

take nothing at face value, there is more to this than meets they eye, there are yota workers picking up garbage in parks. yota is spending millions retraining....

Sounds a lot like a 'jobs bank' to me...

[joemac]

Originally Posted by zete

They have 300,000 workers in the US?

They employ only 36k in the US.

[joemac]

Reference global employment:
Toyota 299k
GM 255k

American jobs:
Toyota 36k
GM 110k

US employment by percentage of total global workforce:
Toyota 12%
GM 43%

Reviewing employment number of past years it's astounding to see how many employees have been cut over the past 10 years. So to say GM hasn't made and UAW hasn't made concessions is ludicrous.

1979 - GM's U.S. employment peaks at 618,365, making it the largest private employer in the country. Worldwide employment is 853,000.

It's a disgrace to see how many jobs have been eliminated or moved to other countries in the automotive sector alone.