Volvo to Fire an Additional 4,000 Employees

Swedish car manufacturer Volvo today announced that nearly 4,000 employees will leave the company by December 31, 2008, as part of Volvo's cost reduction program. Although the cost cutting reason is a bit ambiguous, it's obvious that Volvo took the decision under the pressure of the global economic crisis and very poor sales on most emerging markets.

No less than 2,271 employees in Sweden will leave the company by the end of the year, including here 2,367 blue collar workers and 354 white collars. In addition, 680 employees working for Volvo's subsidiaries in other countries will be fired in December, with full salary during the notice period, as the Swedish company mentioned in a statement released to the press. “Also, 1,215 contracts with consultants have been terminated,” Volvo explained.

"Today is of course a very sad day at Volvo, but I feel satisfied with the fact that our cost reduction program has been successful and it has enabled us to stay with a lower number of redundancies", Stephen Odell, President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation,” commented on the decision.

A similar decision was announced in autumn, with Volvo confirming that approximately 6,000 workers would be let go by the end of the year due to the same much-debated global economic crisis."These are difficult times for the car industry in general, including Volvo. These actions are necessary to create a new and sustainable Volvo Car Corporation - a company with more focused operations and structure”, said President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation, Stephen Odell, at the time of the first “armageddon”.

Volvo is not the only company forced to announce cost-cutting measures and fire employees, with several other carmakers adopting the same market strategy to minimize loses. Tesla Motors for instance, confirmed a heavy job cut in October corroborated with lowered production and special discounts.