Staffing woes put American car industry’s rebound at risk

On the surface, carmakers have staged a remarkable recovery toward pre-pandemic production. But within the walls of U.S. auto plants, it was incredibly challenging to pull off — and is proving difficult to sustain.

Manufacturers rushed to restart assembly lines months ago because sales stayed surprisingly buoyant in the midst of the pandemic.

Several companies said they restored output completely within weeks after reopening, and the industry has avoided the nightmarish outbreaks seen at meatpacking plants.

But along the way, automakers have been stretched thin by absenteeism, distancing protocols, quarantines and supplychain constraints.

In several of America’s biggest auto-making facilities, foot traffic appears to have never gotten back to February levels, according to Orbital Insight, which collects a large, stable and nationwide sample of mobiledevice location data.

While some carmakers downplay the challenges they’ve been having, others acknowledge coming under serious strain in getting their factories fired back up.

The data is surprising because of just how standout a comeback the auto industry has staged.

Since April, the motor-vehicle and parts sector has added 289,000 to U.S. payrolls, a more than 45% surge that dwarfs employment growth in other manufacturing categories. Cars also have been the bright spot in the Federal Reserve’s monthly report on industrial production. Boeing Co., by contrast, continues to be plagued by scrapped orders that have had a debilitating effect on other aviation businesses, including jet-engine maker General Electric Co.

Toyota Motor Corp.’s factories are emblematic of the unevenness of the foot-traffic recovery across some of the industry’s most important plants.

Activity is picking back up at its Highlander sport-utility vehicle factory in Indiana but lagging at its facilities making trucks in Texas and Corollas in Mississippi, according to Orbital Insight’s data.

“We do not anticipate our operations to ‘return to normal’ for some time,” Toyota said in an emailed statement.

Other plants that are far from bouncing back or struggling to sustain their foot-traffic recovery include two key Ford Motor Co. SUV facilities, a Daimler AG factory that is a key source of Mercedes-Benz vehicles globally and Kia Motors Corp.’s only U.S. manufacturing site.