Volkswagen plans to employ 50,000 people by 2018, in its quest to become the world’s largest carmaker. Currently, Europe’s biggest automaker has around 550,000 employees worldwide. Most of the new jobs are expected to go outside the Eurozone, which has been affected by economic uncertainty for the past few years.
“Given the slump in sales we’re seeing in Europe, we need to look carefully at the areas in which we boost staff numbers,” Bernd Osterloh, VW Chairman of the General and Group Works Council told German business daily Handelsblatt.
He also said that while Volkswagen is seeing continued growth, this applied less to Europe and more to China. Of the total 550,000 VW workers, some 300,000 are employed outside of Germany, and half of those are outside of Europe.
Many of the new jobs are expected to go to countries like China, India and Russia, whose car markets have been growing steadily for many years and are expected to continue to grow.
New VW jobs will also come to the United States, as the German carmaker is considering the expansion of its Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant for the construction of a new facility to build the seven-seater crossover previewed by the CrossBlue concept unveiled at the 2013 Detroit Motor Show.
By Dan Mihalascu
Story References: Handelsblatt via The Local
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