Auto slowdown: Expect more layoffs in sales, R and D

While reports say the sector has already culled 3.5 lakh jobs since April, the national OEM body SIAM on Tuesday said at their level itself over 15,000 jobs were laid off this financial year, and thousands lost their livelihood at the dealerships side, where hundreds of them have been shuttered.

The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association had last month warned that of 1 million potential job losses and called upon the government to do something urgent to arrest the deepening slowdown.

The sector employs over 35 million, directly and indirectly and accounts for nearly half of the country’s manufacturing output. The auto sector has been on a downhill since the past 18 months or so after the government flip-flop on ICE engines and the push for electric mobility without any policy or financial support.

Slowdown in the auto sector is a global phenomenon and India is no exception and companies are leveraging the flexibility available at their hands like cutting down/shuttering plants temporarily to minimise their cost, Aditya Narayan Mishra, HR Services chief executive, CIEL, said.

A sustained slowdown will push companies to optimise cost further by laying off high cost resources who are not critical for the day-to-day operations, he opines.