Toyota will axe 3,000 jobs in Japan

Toyota Motor Corp, Japan's biggest carmaker, will cut its domestic temporary workforce by 50 per cent as vehicle demand slumps globally.

Toyota will cut the number of temporary workers to 3,000 from 6,000 by the end of March, spokesman Paul Nolasco said on Friday in a phone interview.

The automaker follows Mazda Motor Corp and Isuzu Motors Ltd, which on Thursday said they would slash a combined 2,700 temporary jobs in Japan in response to slowing sales. Earlier this month, Toyota forecast a 68 per cent drop in full-year net income, the biggest decline in at least 18 years, as a global recession cripples auto demand.

“Falling export demand is having a big impact on production in Japan,” said Hirofumi Yokoi, a Tokyo-based analyst at automotive consulting company CSM Worldwide. “It's unlikely plants will get shut down, but if things get worse, lines, shifts will have to be stopped and plans for new factories will be delayed.”

Japanese companies, which focused on hiring easy-to-fire contract workers during the 15 years of lackluster economic growth that followed the bursting of the bubble economy in 1990, are now shedding them as the global recession cuts demand. Temporary and part-time workers make up 33 per cent of Japan's workforce, up from 20 per cent in 1991, according to the Labor Ministry.