Following the late-September announcement of massive layoffs at Russia’s OAO AvtoVaz - 27,600 jobs getting the axe - and Germany’s car-scrapping subsidy recently coming to an end, fears have been ascendant that another wave of job cuts is headed to central Europe’s auto sector, The Wall Street Journal’s New Europe blog reported. Earlier this year car makers in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and elsewhere in the region let go thousands of temporary contract workers, reduced work weeks to four days and some eliminated shifts. But the modest recovery in demand for affordable and fuel efficient cars made in central Europe, helped by the car-scrapping subsidies, brought production to near normal levels at most plants. Read more. (Subscription required.)
