The reduction comes amid a time of stress for the German company, in which it says it is facing harsh competition domestically and internationally.
German multinational technology company Siemens has revealed plans to cut its global workforce as it deals with increased competition from its home market and internationally from organisations based in China.
The cuts will affect Siemens’ Digital Industries business, which employs roughly 68,000 people worldwide. Around 2,600 of those layoffs will impact its German teams and measures are expected to be implemented by the end of 2027, in what will be a period of capacity adjustments for the company.
Additionally, Siemens is aiming to better leverage opportunities in the electric vehicle charging industry, with potential innovations related to fast charging infrastructure, depots and fleets. Currently the organisation employs 1,300 people to manage its electric vehicle charging sector, however, 450 jobs are likely to be impacted by layoffs, with measures to be introduced by the end of 2025.
According to the press release issued by Siemens, “since the start of fiscal 2023, muted demand primarily in the key markets of China and Germany coupled with increased competitive pressures have considerably reduced orders and revenue in the industrial automation business.
“Global demand for automation technology is intact over the long term. However, the shift of growth away from current key markets such as Germany has made a structural adjustment of capacities necessary.
“Further measures to strengthen competitiveness of the automation business of Digital Industries include a realignment of sales activities, cross-unit collaboration in product development and a more flexible steering of the organisation’s global factory network.”
The organisation has also said that, as far as possible, those affected by the cuts will have access to reskilling and upskilling. There will also be opportunities for job placement inside the company, which currently has more than 7,000 job vacancies, 2,000 of those in Germany.
In October of last year it was announced that Siemens would be acquiring US technology company Altair Engineering in a multibillion-dollar deal.
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