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 Manufacture For Transport Equipment Manufacture Of Motor Vehicles, Trailers And Semi-Trailers 29.32 - Manufacture Of Other Parts And Accessories For Motor Vehicles
New offshoring locations
Various Locations
831 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
6 September 2023
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
Description
American automotive parts supplier Lear Corporation has announced the closure of its Gödöllő plant, and the subsequent offshoring of production. 831 employees will be laid off as a result.
The Gödöllő plant produces cable whips. While global cable whip demand is declining, the specific products made at the Gödöllő plant do not face product shortages. The firm is transferring its cable whip production to countries with lower wage costs, to achieve better cost efficiency. As of 24 September, there is no information about the timing of the layoffs, nor about the specific locations to which the production will be relocated.
For the same reasons, the company already closed another cable whip plant in Gyöngyös in 2018. At that time, the firm started to gradually reduce the output of the Gödöllő plant as well.
The closure is a severe blow to the workforce because of the favourable working conditions. More than two-thirds of the workforce worked for the company for several decades. A significant share of the workers was from Northern Hungary, a region with generally unfavourable labour market conditions. These workers may face difficulties in finding new jobs.
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.
