Japan vehicle makers slow down on US jobs
JAPANESE vehicle makers and their suppliers added jobs in the US at a slower pace last year than in 2012, as they expanded in Mexico and elsewhere to cut the effect of currency fluctuations.
The Asian nation’s car makers employed 82,816 workers in the US last year, up 2.2% from 2012, according to a study commissioned by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. That compared with a 12% jump in 2012.
Mexico passed Japan as the number two exporter of cars to the US as of June, bolstered by new plants from Japanese car makers Nissan, Honda and Mazda.
Japan’s car makers have increasingly looked to locate factories outside their home country to gird against currency fluctuations. The yen weakened against the Mexican peso and the US dollar in the 12 months through August 14, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“You just have to deal with the consequences of changing circumstances,” said Rutgers University economics professor Thomas Prusa, the study’s author. “One way to do that is to diversify global production,” he said.
Toyota, which is consolidating its North American headquarters in Texas from California, reported a 7.4% jump in US sales last year, the industry’s best year since 2007.
Nissan’s deliveries rose 9.4%, while Mazda saw a gain of 2.5%. Tokyo-based Honda’s increased 7.2%.
Light-vehicle sales in the US rose 7.6% to 15.6-million last year, when Japanese car makers added almost 1,800 jobs. Their suppliers and the intermediate companies they do business with saw an increase of 2.8% to 224,000 workers.
Vehicle makers have been globalising for decades and expanding in the US has been key for Japanese companies, Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association US general director Ron Bookbinder said. “Japanese automakers like to build where demand exists, and there’s a lot of demand in the US,” he said in an interview.