Siemens will cut 6,000 jobs

Austerity measures Siemens will cut 6,000 jobs

2025-03-19 From Sebastian Gerstl | Translated by AI 3 min Reading Time

Related Vendors

The poor figures from the past year have noticeable effects on the Siemens Group: 6,000 jobs are to be cut worldwide, about 2,850 of them in Germany. The factory automation sector is particularly affected by this.

Siemens headquarters in Munich. Worldwide, the company plans to cut 6,000 jobs, 2,850 of them in Germany. The areas of Digital Industries and electric fast charging solutions are particularly affected by this.(Image: Siemens) — Siemens headquarters in Munich. Worldwide, the company plans to cut 6,000 jobs, 2,850 of them in Germany. The areas of Digital Industries and electric fast charging solutions are particularly affected by this.
(Image: Siemens)

The German Siemens Group has announced plans to cut 6,000 jobs worldwide. In Germany specifically, it is expected that 2,850 jobs will be eliminated, according to various news reports. Most of these job cuts are expected to affect the struggling Digital Industries business unit, particularly the automation division contained within it.

In Germany, sites in Bavaria are particularly affected

Already last year, Siemens identified factory automation as a particular concern for the company in light of declining sales figures. High inventory levels at customers, combined with weak demand, have led to production lines in the automation sector not running at full capacity for some time.

Accordingly, by September 2027, 5,600 of the announced 6,000 jobs in this sector are to be cut. Of these, approximately 2,600 are expected to be in Germany. A large part of these cuts will likely affect sites in Bavaria, as many plants in the Digital Industries sector are located there.

The charging station business is also not running smoothly

Furthermore, an additional 450 jobs in the electric vehicle charging solutions business are to be cut by the end of September, 250 of which are in Germany. Siemens cites strong price pressure and limited growth potential in the segment of low-power charging stations as reasons. In the future, the company intends to focus on fast-charging infrastructure for fleets and on-the-go charging. In the medium term, Siemens seems to plan to spin off this business area from the company.

Siemens recently reported generally good figures for the current year: In the first quarter of the current fiscal year ending in December, the group reported a profit of 2.1 billion euros. However, changing conditions in key markets necessitated adjustments, according to the company: "The German market, in particular, has been declining for two years. Therefore, capacities in Germany need to be adjusted." Overall, the workforce in Germany will "tend to remain constant" as Siemens is recruiting in other growing areas.

Employees annoyed

There was criticism from the employees' side. "We have no understanding for the planned measures at the DI and are surprised and angry at the massive planned job cuts," said Birgit Steinborn, chairwoman of the central works council and deputy chairwoman of the supervisory board. "If the One Tech Company is supposed to be a growth program, then we demand that jobs be created sustainably instead of being cut for the sake of profit margin," she said. Under this title, Siemens announced a program last year aiming, among other things, to bring units closer together.

There is also a bad mood in the union. The second chairman of IG Metall, Jürgen Kerner, who is also on the Siemens supervisory board, criticized the plans as well. "On the one hand, designing the future-oriented vision of a One Tech Company, and on the other hand, cutting thousands of jobs, cannot be communicated to the employees. The trust that employees will be taken along the way through transformation and into the new setup is quickly shattered by such measures and then difficult to repair," said Kerner. "Transformation is not managed through cutbacks, but through positive change – especially development and qualification." In his view, redundancies for operational reasons are excluded by site and employment security. "The question is rather how one wants to achieve the fundamentally changed company structure of the future through a radical shrinking process. From our point of view, that cannot work."

During the 2020 coronavirus crisis, Siemens, under then-CEO Joe Kaeser, ordered widespread short-time work but excluded job cuts despite weak business. However, in the ensuing period, the factory automation area apparently did not recover to the extent hoped for. The now announced job cuts are a consequence of the poor business year 2023/24, which affected many German companies in the automation and automotive industries. (sg) With material from dpa

Consent to the use of data for promotional purposes

I hereby consent to Vogel Communications Group GmbH & Co. KG, Max-Planck-Str. 7-9, 97082 Würzburg including any affiliated companies according to §§ 15 et seq. AktG (hereafter: Vogel Communications Group) using my e-mail address to send editorial newsletters. A list of all affiliated companies can be found here

Newsletter content may include all products and services of any companies mentioned above, including for example specialist journals and books, events and fairs as well as event-related products and services, print and digital media offers and services such as additional (editorial) newsletters, raffles, lead campaigns, market research both online and offline, specialist webportals and e-learning offers. In case my personal telephone number has also been collected, it may be used for offers of aforementioned products, for services of the companies mentioned above, and market research purposes.

Additionally, my consent also includes the processing of my email address and telephone number for data matching for marketing purposes with select advertising partners such as LinkedIn, Google, and Meta. For this, Vogel Communications Group may transmit said data in hashed form to the advertising partners who then use said data to determine whether I am also a member of the mentioned advertising partner portals. Vogel Communications Group uses this feature for the purposes of re-targeting (up-selling, cross-selling, and customer loyalty), generating so-called look-alike audiences for acquisition of new customers, and as basis for exclusion for on-going advertising campaigns. Further information can be found in section “data matching for marketing purposes”.

In case I access protected data on Internet portals of Vogel Communications Group including any affiliated companies according to §§ 15 et seq. AktG, I need to provide further data in order to register for the access to such content. In return for this free access to editorial content, my data may be used in accordance with this consent for the purposes stated here. This does not apply to data matching for marketing purposes.

Right of revocation

I understand that I can revoke my consent at will. My revocation does not change the lawfulness of data processing that was conducted based on my consent leading up to my revocation. One option to declare my revocation is to use the contact form found at https://contact.vogel.de. In case I no longer wish to receive certain newsletters, I have subscribed to, I can also click on the unsubscribe link included at the end of a newsletter. Further information regarding my right of revocation and the implementation of it as well as the consequences of my revocation can be found in the data protection declaration, section editorial newsletter.