The 177-year-old German industrial benchmark is embarking on an organizational restructuring of a scale rarely seen in the last decade, involving the optimization of more than 6,000 jobs in two core business segments.

According to the information disclosed by the company, the adjustment of the manpower structure will be implemented in stages:

1. Industrial Automation sector: 5,600 technical jobs were cut globally, accounting for 8.3% of the total workforce in the digital industrial sector.

2. Electric vehicle charging business: one third of the staffing of this business unit will be cut

The adjustment plan will be fully implemented by the end of fiscal year 2025, involving 12 major manufacturing bases in Germany, the United States and China. It is worth noting that the strategic contraction comes at a time when Siemens' digital industrial division is experiencing a cold current in revenue - the latest quarterly results show that its industrial automation business profit margin plunged by a third year-on-year, and the core controller product line's market share in China fell below the 15% warning line.

Defending the job cuts, Siemens director Cedrik Neike said Siemens' automation business had to become faster and more flexible. "We need to achieve regional balance and gain access to a wider customer base," he told Handelsblatt. "Siemens must grow more strongly in other Asian markets such as India and the US and become more active in areas such as the aerospace and defence industry as well as the process industry." Cedrik Neike said.

The main reason for the layoffs in Siemens' EV charging business is that the growth potential of low-power charging stations is limited and Siemens is facing strong price pressure. Currently, the business is moving to fast charging infrastructure in parking lots and fleets, as well as charging en route, through Heliox, which was acquired in 2023. The business is also building a more regional approach to markets with sometimes different charging standards, so that it can serve the market faster and more targeted.

IG Metall, a German trade union, said Siemens' decision to cut jobs had undermined the trust of employees who had worked to transform Siemens into a technology company.

Juergen Kerner, vice chairman of the German Metal industry Association and a member of Siemens' supervisory board, said: "Transformation is not achieved by downsizing, but by positive change and, above all, by further development and training."

Siemens also said that employment arrangements within the company will also play a key role in implementing the measures, as Siemens currently has more than 7,000 open positions, around 2,000 of which are in Germany. As a result, the total number of employees in Germany will stabilise.

Siemens is underlining its commitment to the German market, with €1 billion of the €2 billion global investment announced by Siemens in 2023 earmarked for Germany. This includes €500 million for Siemens' new research and high-tech manufacturing campus in Erlangen, Germany, where the company is establishing a global development and manufacturing center, as well as a springboard for technology-related activities that drive the industrial metauniverse.

In addition to Siemens' job cuts, Germany's other big industrial giant, Volkswagen, recently launched a cost-cutting plan involving 35,000 job cuts; Audi Group recently announced that it will cut about 7,500 jobs in Germany by the end of 2029; Porsche recently announced plans to cut 3,900 jobs.

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