When layoffs become the main theme of the industry, car companies stop recruiting automotive graduates. Where is the way forward?

2019 has left quietly, and we can look forward to the arrival of spring. However, for the automotive industry, the whistle of the "cold winter" has still not sounded.

Since 2018, affected by various factors, the global automobile industry has entered a deep adjustment, and the future development direction of automobile companies has changed to non-fossil fuels as electric drive. The concepts of "electrification, intelligence, connectivity, and sharing" are deeply imprinted in the minds of every car person. Each step of these changes and transformations requires a large amount of R&D investment. Companies have launched layoff plans in 2019. Not only new stars such as NIO, but also mainstream cross-border car companies such as Daimler, General Motors, Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen, and Honda have not been spared. Here are some of the auto companies that have announced and are about to announce layoffs.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, in the next few years, global automakers will lay off more than 80,000 jobs. The three major giants in the German automobile industry have announced that the number of layoffs will reach 25,000 in the coming period. Bernhard Mattes, chairman of the German Automobile Industry Association, said: "Competition in the automobile industry is becoming increasingly fierce. , The resistance is growing. Factory capacity utilization has declined, limited-term employment contracts have not been renewed, and short-term staffing has been used again, which means that the number of permanent employees in automobile factories may further decline."

Has transformation become a shield for car companies to lay off employees?

Take Germany as an example. On November 29 last year, Daimler announced its latest cost reduction plan. The document showed that Daimler will lay off thousands of employees in the next three years, reaching 2022. Plan to reduce employee costs by 1.4 billion euros per year. But according to Wilfried Porth, the group's board member responsible for human resources: "The number of layoffs is at least five figures, that is, no less than 10,000 people." Daimler gave The argument is that the cost savings from layoffs can make up for the rising costs of investing in electric vehicle technology and the decline in profits caused by weak sales.

The cold winter in the car market has intensified, and it is not just Daimler that has been affected. Audi and BMW, the three German giants, have also begun to adopt tightening policies. From Audi's statement, we learned that the group will lay off 9,500 people by 2025, accounting for about 10% of the total number of employees. The cost savings of 6 billion euros over the next ten years will be used to support companies that want to electrify and digitize. transformation.

Although BMW did not give a specific layoff plan, company executives also stated in the interview that they will strive to save more than 12 billion euros in costs by 2022 to cope with the electrification transformation and autonomous driving technology. Cost expenditure. ?

In addition to OEMs, parts suppliers have also been hit hard and have also resorted to layoffs to cope with the cold winter. For example, some time ago, Bosch Group said it would cut 1,600 jobs in Germany in the next two years. positions related to internal combustion engine technology; the German Brose Group also announced that it will lay off 2,000 people in Germany in the next three years. ?

As for the root cause of layoffs, both OEMs and component suppliers have given almost uniform explanations, which are to save costs and transform investment in electrification. But their employees don't see this as a defense for layoffs.

On November 22, 2019, a protest of about 15,000 people broke out in Stuttgart, the global headquarters of Daimler Group, Porsche and major parts supplier Bosch. The event was backed by Germany's most powerful trade union organization (German Metalworkers Union IGMetall). At the historic Palace Square, protesters condemned these car manufacturers for using the transition to electrification as an excuse to further cut expenses and increase profits. .

Roman Zitzelsberger, regional head of IG Metall in the German state of Baden-Württemberg and worker representative on the supervisory board of Daimler Group, appealed to the crowd: "We will never accept it because some leaders have not completed their "Our jobs were taken away." Even so, they were unable to stop this wave of layoffs. Just one week later, Audi officially announced its staff reduction plan.

If the world's auto giants are like this, life for Chinese auto companies is naturally not easy. As a representative company of new domestic car-making forces, NIO's North American headquarters has carried out as many as three layoffs within a year, mainly focusing on R&D and engineering positions. So far, NIO has laid off a total of 273 employees in North America. At the beginning of this year, the total number of employees at NIO's North American headquarters was 640, and the layoff rate reached 42.6%.

In-depth understanding revealed that the downturn in the auto market was not caused by individual factors, but the result of the intertwining and synergistic effects of multiple factors in the short, medium and long term. Since 2019, from the beginning of the subsidy reduction to the upgrade from National Five to National Six, it has also been interspersed with Sino-US trade frictions, staged saturation of market demand, and the squeezing effect of high housing prices. The manufacturing industry is getting worse.

Car companies don’t recruit automotive graduates? Sounds like a joke

With the arrival of the new four modernizations, the talent structure of the automotive industry is undergoing unprecedented changes. Starting from 2018, some companies have stopped recruiting students majoring in vehicle engineering. Take FAW-Volkswagen as an example. In September this year, FAW-Volkswagen stated that due to corporate transformation and adjustment, there will be no vehicle engineering, industrial design (body structure), etc. in 2020. There were plans to recruit students from multiple majors. At that time, the news immediately aroused heated discussion in the industry. Many college students in the automotive department complained, "Everyone once said that the automotive department was the cradle of automotive engineers, but now it seems more like a grave."

Does FAW-Volkswagen really have no recruitment needs for such a large enterprise? Of course not, it only cancels the recruitment demand for automotive-related professionals, but it shows unusual enthusiasm for computer talents. From the official recruitment website of FAW-Volkswagen, we can see that whether it is social recruitment or campus recruitment, the group only provides product development positions, and the qualifications do not include automotive majors.

As the demand for internal combustion engine talents from traditional car companies has dropped sharply, it is almost difficult for them to find jobs with corresponding majors. In order to "avoid lightning" in advance, some students have already begun to prepare for the postgraduate entrance examination in their junior year and continue their studies in the direction of intelligent connected cars. In their view, pure electric new energy vehicles may not become the future trend, but intelligent connected vehicles are already the general trend.

In addition, according to the staff of the employment office of universities, “Many mechanical students have begun to minor in computers, and most of them have longing and yearning for OEMs. Since the automobile companies Transformation is a foregone conclusion, so we can work hard to adapt to its changes."

Editor's conclusion:

At present, the "new four modernizations" are becoming a new trend in the future development of the automobile industry. , not only new power companies, but even established traditional car companies are working hard to add technological attributes to themselves. In the process of digital transformation, companies must reduce costs and increase efficiency. For employees, the re-employment pressure caused by layoffs is self-evident. In the cold winter, everyone is looking forward to the sound of warm spring!

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.