One of the concerns of the change in the automobile industry from cars with combustion engines to the simplest electric ones, is the possible loss of jobs. Something that also has to do with the increasing automation. But the first results are being much better than expected by the big groups, who are having to adjust their squad less than estimated.
One of the latest examples comes from the factory of stellantis in the Slovak city of Trnava. A facility that planned to lay off 500 workers due to the lower workload of electric cars.
The data was highly anticipated in a country like Slovakia, where the automotive industry provides almost 200,000 jobs in a country with barely 5 million inhabitants, and where unions and experts estimated that layoffs would reach 70,000 people.
This week Stellantis has finally confirmed that the workforce adjustment at its Slovak plant will be 360 workers, but that some positions will be filled with new profiles adapted to the electric car and digitization. So the net loss will be even less.
According to Monika Martišková of the Central European Institute for Labor Studies (CELSI). “In the companies, the updating of capacities will be carried out. Businesses will have to become more digitized or automated, and people will still be needed. But they will not be needed in production but in operational technology. The number of jobs will not necessarily change, but the structure will”.
Something that indicates that there will be a transformation, but this will not have a negative impact on jobs, and we can even take into account the synergies that the electrification of transport will have in other sectors, such as renewable energies, the expansion and maintenance of recharging networks… etc.which will create millions of new jobs in Europe.
