Bosch to Cut Jobs, Hours, for German Workforce

Bosch, the world’s biggest auto supplier, announces it is cutting working and pay hours for 10,000 of its German employees following its previous notice of cutting up to 5,500 jobs in the country.

The moves reflect the severe challenges facing the European Union’s manufacturing powerhouse and particularly its struggling auto industry.

Germany’s major automakers, Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler/Mercedes-Benz, are seeing their sales slump in their key Chinese market where they had been earning about a third of their global revenues.

The advance of China’s domestic automakers and the ongoing price war to sell product are slashing the German brands’ revenues.

The slowdown in automaker production is now hitting Bosch’s over capacity and staff. Those mainly on mostly 38- to 40-hour contracts at sites around Germany will have their hours reduced to 35 hours, Reuters reports quoting a spokesperson speaking to the dpa news agency.

Cuts include 2,500 positions in the supplier's cross-domain computer solutions division, half of which will be at German sites, by the end of 2027 with Bosch citing flagging demand for intelligent driver assistance systems and autonomous driving solutions.

The company also plans to cut around 750 jobs by 2032 at its Hildesheim plant in Germany, 600 of which are planned by the end of 2026.

On top of this, Bosch announces cuts at its steering division at a plant in Schwaebisch Gmuend, near Stuttgart, where it plans to ditch up to 1,300 jobs between 2027 and 2030.

Bosch's works council and the IG Metall union expressed their opposition to the layoffs in a statement. Frank Sell, deputy head of the works council, says: “We will now organize our resistance to these plans at all levels.”