Foreign: According to several news media outlets, including Reuters and Bloomberg, German car giant BMW is planning to cut around 8,000 jobs worldwide by the end of 2027. According to the report, German workers are expected to be particularly affected as the manufacturer deals with high production costs in Europe as well as a slump in sales in China.
According to RT on July 29, 2026, the company is said to have offered buyouts to people working in research, development, planning and other corporate departments as part of a deal aimed at boosting the plan. Factory workers will not be eligible for the deal, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
BMW CEO Milan Nedeljkovic is expected to announce the voluntary layoff program at a staff meeting this week, the source said, adding that the plan will be launched in October and run until 2027. The company is reported to be cutting about 5% of its total workforce.
The automaker had 87,436 employees in Germany as of the end of 2025, more than half of its global workforce. According to Bloomberg, the company has already made gradual cuts, with a 2.3% decline compared to 2024.
It comes just a day after another German automaker, Porsche, announced plans to eliminate another 5,000 jobs by 2035, bringing its total layoffs to about 9,400 positions. Its parent company, Volkswagen, is considering cutting up to 100,000 jobs due to a prolonged industrial downturn caused by high energy prices.
The Federation of German Industries (BDI) warned last week that the country’s manufacturing sector is losing 15,000 jobs every month, in a situation it described as “dangerous.”
Once Europe’s industrial powerhouse, Germany has struggled with near-zero growth for years. It fell in both 2023 and 2024, the first annual decline in more than two decades, and is forecast to rise by just 0.5% this year. The corporate bankruptcy rate also rose by more than 22% in each year, according to official data.
Editor: Nay Tola
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