The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Manufacturing (29 - 30) Manufacture for transport equipment 29.1 - Manufacture of motor vehicles 29.1 - Manufacture of motor vehicles
3,700 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
20 November 2024
Employment effect (start)
28 November 2025
Foreseen end date
31 December 2027
Description
As announced on 20 November 2024, US car manufacturer Ford plans to cut 4,000 jobs in Europe, with 2,900 of them in Germany. In Germany, the majority of the layoffs are expected at the Cologne site, where Ford employs 11,500 people. However, the Saarlouis and Aachen locations could also be affected. The company attributes the job cuts to the high costs of transitioning to electric vehicles, weak demand in the passenger car segment, and increasing competition.
Cologne serves as Ford's European headquarters and is where two electric vehicle models are produced. In 2023 and 2024, Ford invested €2 billion in the Cologne site to enable electric vehicle production, but expectations were not met.
The works council has announced resistance to the plans, vowing to resist the job cuts. Local authorities, including North Rhine-Westphalia’s minister-president, have also expressed concerns, emphasising the need for political support to help the industry cope with the transformation.
Ford employs approximately 16,500 people in Germany overall.
This restructuring event is a part of a global restructuring programme. The global restructuring event has been recorded in the ERM events database Ford 2024 - WO
Updated, 28/11/25:
As announced on 28 November 2025, Ford is starting the announced job cuts in Cologne. It has also now been confirmed that a total of 3,700 positions will be eliminated, 800 more than announced in 2024. Severance programmes for these positions have now started, and employees have three months to decide whether to leave voluntarily.
Eurofound (2024), Ford, Internal restructuring in Germany, factsheet number 201997, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/201997.
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
The retail banking sector is fertile ground for studying the impacts of digitalisation on work and employment. Financial services are increasingly provided online, without the intermediary of customer-facing institutions.
European labour markets have recovered strongly from COVID-19. By the end of 2021, little more than 18 months after the start of the pandemic, employment rates in the EU were almost at pre-crisis levels.
