U.S. Carmakers Face Staff Cuts Amid Trump Pressure to Add Jobs

As sales begin to shrink in the U.S., domestic-brand carmakers face the tough choice of making prudent business decisions to trim production (and jobs) or hire more workers to please the White House.

The companies so far have opted for the former path, thereby risking the ire of President Donald Trump, notes The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper says cuts planned by General Motors and Ford over the next several months will more than offset job gains pledged by the two companies pledged in the first few months of Trump’s presidency.

Trump has promised tax cuts and eased regulations that could bolster carmaker profits. But that won’t necessarily preserve jobs if, as analysts predict, sales volumes slowly decline over the next several years. Carmakers have been quick to trim production in the past several years to avoid high inventories that can lead to massive price discounting.

Total employment among carmakers and suppliers hit a high of 945,000 last month—50% higher than it was at the bottom of the industry’s slump in 2009, the Journal points out. Employment in car assembly plants reached an eight-year high of more than 211,000 workers at the end of last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.