The closure of Toyota’s automotive assembly plant in Melbourne yesterday has resulted in the loss of 2,600 direct jobs. However, government modelling shows that component suppliers will shed around 3,000 jobs as a result of Toyota’s decision to end local manufacturing.
At least 16 suppliers are expected to cease trading, while 25 intend to reduce their workforce. Meanwhile, Dave Smith of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union notes that about 50% of Ford workers have not secured full-time employment 12 months after the company ceased local manufacturing.
From The Canberra Times:
The impacts of the job losses are not confined to the factories themselves. More than 3000 Victorian supply-chain workers will be left unemployed from the many companies that make components for Toyota cars, according to the latest government modelling.
At least seven components manufacturers have recently closed, or are set to close in coming weeks, as a result of the Toyota shutdown, union officials said. These include businesses based in industrial areas of Melbourne’s north, west and south-east…
As of September, 84 component-making businesses across the state said they would be able stay open, while 25 would have to downsize, and at least 16 will close.
Toyota has been building cars in Australia for more than five decades, and, in recent years, has been the biggest local producer.
…in the blue-collar manufacturing industry, studies have shown the average worker is 50 years old and has spent two decades with the one company, meaning there are significant challenges for many in finding re-employment.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said just 50 per cent of the Ford workers who lost their jobs last October had so far managed to find full-time work.
“At the Ford motor company, despite all the efforts to help people upskill and transition to new employment, that hasn’t happened in being able to help people find full-time jobs,” Mr Smith said on Tuesday, outside the Toyota factory…
With Holden’s assembly plant in Adelaide scheduled to close later in the month, the job losses across manufacturing will obviously mount.
Indeed, the official Department of Employment projection is for the closure of the car industry to cost some 27,500 manufacturing jobs over the five years to November 2020:
But as noted yesterday, other forecasts point to higher losses once impacts on downstream and upstream industries are taken into account.
It will also leave a big dint in Australia’s balance of payments, with Australia’s automotive industry becoming 100% consumers, not producers, meaning that all our cars will need to be funded by other exports or external borrowings.
In short, the car industry’s closure will hurt.
