While the U.S. auto market is in the process of working out the details of receiving their government bailout, the Japanese auto industry is taking a hit as well. Toyota is reporting its first losses in 70 years. The auto company’s has experienced expansive growth over the past few years, largely due to the Prius gas-electric hybrid car, but even the hype of hybrid cars are no match for a dwindling economy.
The good news: no layoffs. Toyota has a history of not cutting full time jobs, even in some tough times and they are showing no signs of a reduction in full time jobs. That includes the 36,600 employees in the U.S. The bad news: it doesn’t include the part-time workers. So temps, watch out!
In spite of Toyota’s loss, they are still poised to overtake General Motors as the world’s leading car makers for 2008. Toyota began the year outselling GM by almost 400,000 cars at the beginning of the year. Since last month record low in car sales it’s not looking likely that GM will be able to match Toyota in the eight days remaining of the year. We imagine the celebration party of being the world’s leading car maker the same day as reporting losses of 1.66 billion dollars isn’t a little more sparkling wine rather than champagne. But there’s always next year, right? Nope, Toyota projects 2009 to be an even worse year. Pack that in with the weak dollar at a 13 year low against the Yen and auto maker analyst Tsuyoshi Mochimaru starts saying things like “[the reports are] unmistakable that things are extremely tough for Toyota.”
