By MARK ROBERTS By MARK ROBSPublished July 18, 2019 12:35:03The auto industry’s labor troubles have come home to roost for workers at a key US automaker.
A record number of workers lost their jobs in the auto industry last year and some were forced to go on strike, while others were forced out on the job, according to data released Tuesday by the National Automobile Dealers Association.
The UAW’s membership was down 7,000 last year, the most in decades, and more than half of the workers were laid off in the United States, which has the largest number of job losses in the industry, according the union.
The loss of UAW membership, which represents some 14 million people, has been an annual source of frustration for the auto and truck industry, but has been compounded by the fallout of the auto bailout, which sent tens of billions of dollars to help automakers in recent years.
The United Auto Workers’ membership has fallen from an estimated 11.3 million members in 2015 to 9.3 percent last year.
In 2017, the union’s membership fell by 2.6 million members to 9,734, according a labor group tracking the auto labor market.
In a statement, the UAW said it is working to recruit and retain additional UAW members and “to increase its efforts to retain its most vulnerable members” by reaching out to workers.
The union’s annual report shows that the industry has lost an estimated 12.6 percent of its workforce since 2016, while the unemployment rate has dropped to 4.5 percent, the lowest since 2007.
While the auto companies’ labor costs have been falling, the number of layoffs have risen in recent months, as the auto manufacturers are trying to shore up cash reserves and trim costs.
The UAW has blamed the downturn on a slowdown in new orders, which have been buoyed by President Donald Trump’s tough talk on China and other issues.
The numbers show that auto manufacturing in the U.S. has seen a steep drop in new vehicles and passenger vehicles.
The industry saw 2.3 new vehicles for every 1,000 new workers in 2019, a sharp drop from 4.4 for every 100,000 workers in 2015, according data from the Automotive News Association.
Automakers are now hiring fewer people than they were in 2016, with the number dropping by more than 7 percent from January to June of this year.
The number of auto jobs fell by 1.6, or about a third, from a year earlier.
The auto industry is expected to add 2.1 million jobs in 2021, according in the union report.
In its report, the labor group said the auto jobs loss was a result of several factors, including a reduction in new vehicle orders due to a weak economy, a drop in demand for passenger vehicles and a shift toward automated vehicles.
The automotive industry’s losses were particularly significant in the North America and Europe, as it was the most impacted by the global financial crisis.
In the United Kingdom, where the UWA is based, the job losses were higher than in the rest of the European Union, which accounts for the largest share of auto industry jobs.
In Europe, the biggest losses were in the UK, where about one in three jobs were lost.
In Germany, the figure was less than one in 10.
In the United Arab Emirates, the UAE has seen more job losses than the rest, with about a quarter of jobs lost, according figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.
In China, which is the second largest auto industry in the world, the figures were lower than in most of the other parts of the world.
In 2019, China’s unemployment rate was 4.9 percent, slightly lower than that in the US and about the same as Germany.
In Russia, the unemployment figure was slightly higher than the US but also lower than the other three countries.
The decline in the number and rate of layoffs was partly attributed to the government’s crackdown on “foreign takeovers,” which are taking over smaller companies to fill gaps in jobs.
The Trump administration has sought to impose tougher economic restrictions on foreign ownership of U.A.E. and other companies, while trying to encourage the auto makers to hire more American workers.