"Jobs Will Increase Even in the Era of Future Cars"

Fewer Electric Vehicle Parts Reduce Production Jobs
Increase in Production of SW, Battery, and Electronic Components
Expanded Auto Industry Scope Boosts Total Employment
Europe to Add 200,000 EV Jobs by 2030
Domestic Employment Expected to Grow 0.1% Annually Until 2027

[Asia Economy Reporters Suyeon Woo and Jihui Kim] Contrary to the expectation that jobs will decrease in the future car era, which is being reorganized mainly around electric vehicles, an analysis has emerged that the total amount of employment may rather increase as the automotive industry expands its scope to software, batteries, electronic components, and more.

According to Boston Consulting Group on the 19th, global electric vehicle sales are expected to surpass 10 million units by 2025 and account for more than 50% of the global automobile market by 2037. Another future car, fully autonomous vehicles, is expected to be launched around 2025 and achieve a market share of 9.8% by 2035.

As the future car market is immediately reorganized mainly around electric vehicles, voices of concern about employment reduction have emerged in the automotive industry. This is because electric vehicles require only about half the number of parts compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, which need 20,000 to 30,000 parts. Going forward, as electric vehicle processes become simpler and industrial automation using robots progresses rapidly, it will be possible to produce finished products with a minimized workforce.

Recently, global automakers rushing to implement workforce restructuring are not unrelated to this trend. American automaker Ford closed six plants in Europe last year and cut 12,000 jobs, while GM closed five plants in the U.S. and Canada and restructured about 14,000 employees. Japanese automaker Nissan also announced plans to reduce about 12,500 workers in its production sector alone.

However, if the scope of the automotive industry is expanded beyond simple manufacturing to include various autonomous driving software, mobility services, electric vehicle batteries and charging systems, smart factories, and other new businesses, the story changes. Although employment in traditional production jobs may decrease, the total employment in the new automotive ecosystem covering diverse fields could rather increase.

The European Climate Foundation forecasted that with the emergence of a new value chain for electric vehicles, an additional 206,000 jobs will be created in Europe by 2030. In the U.S., where the future car industry such as autonomous driving is rapidly growing, employment related to technology is steadily increasing. From 2012 to 2016, the demand for connected car and autonomous driving engineers in the U.S. approached 45,000.

Recently, Audi declared its transition to an electric vehicle system and announced plans to reduce 10% of its entire workforce (about 9,500 employees) while newly hiring 2,000 electric vehicle-related personnel. However, these additional hires will prioritize re-employing those who were laid off through retraining.

In Korea as well, as the number of workers in eco-friendly vehicle parts, autonomous driving software, and service industries increases, steady job creation in the new automotive industry is expected. The Korea Employment Information Service predicted that the number of employees in Korea’s automotive-related industries will increase from 572,000 in 2017 to 585,000 in 2027, growing at an average annual rate of 0.1%.

Professor Heo Jeong of the Department of Economics at Sogang University said, "As electric vehicle processes become simplified and streamlined, there is no longer a reason for Korea to cling solely to automobile manufacturing. To survive in the new value chain, efforts should be made to focus on software and service industries to enhance product value and increase employment."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.