Toyota scaling back on U.S. production
TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: More bad news today from the world’s biggest automaker. Toyota is cutting production in North America. It’ll offer buyouts to some 18,000 workers and shorten its work week by eight hours at some plants. Marketplace’s Jeremy Hobson has more from New York.
Jeremy Hobson: The buyout offer certainly beats getting laid off. It’s 10 weeks of pay plus two more weeks for every year of service to the company — plus $20,000.
Paul Newton, an automotive analyst at IHS Global Insight, says Toyota is doing everything possible to avoid layoffs.
Paul Newton: Toyota have only ever three times in their entire history, you know, asked workers to leave their company.
The company saw its first net loss since 1950 this year, and Newton says the outlook for the next year is getting worse by the day.
Newton: They’re looking at losing something like losing 30 percent of their output. There’s absolutely no way a company can survive when it’s geared to producing 30 percent more. So inevitably, people will have to go.
Toyota, which is based in Japan, had made an effort to employ as many workers as possible in the states. Which is — or at least used to be — the world’s biggest market for cars.
In New York, I’m Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.
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