Bosch to cut thousands of jobs in India as car sales slump

Last year India’s economy was powering ahead with one of the fastest growing GDPs in the world. But it ended the year spluttering to its slowest growth in more than six year (the July-September quarter GDP came in at 4.5%).

Declining consumption and investment accompanied by falling tax revenue have been blamed for the sudden collapse, which is taking its toll on companies doing business in India.

The car manufacturing industry has been having a tough time of it, along with its suppliers. One of these is Bosch, which is cutting jobs amid one of its worst car sales slowdowns in decades.

Bosch said it will cut “a couple of thousand” jobs in India in over the next four years. About 10% of white-collar jobs and blue-collar jobs will be axed.

“There is a transformation happening across the industry,” Bosch India Managing Director Soumitra Bhattacharya said. “We looked at that as an opportunity to transform the company even before the downturn started.”

2019 has been a particularly tough year for carmakers across the globe with shrinking demand and a major shift in vehicle technology. Daimler and Audi recently announced almost 20,000 job cuts.