Toyota to Cut Jobs?

If Toyota, whose efficiency and financially stability are legendary in business, is in trouble, then you know things are looking bad for everyone.

Toyota May Cut U.S. Payroll as Unsold Autos Pile Up

(Bloomberg) -- The worst U.S. auto market since the early 1990s may force Toyota Motor Corp. to do something that was once unthinkable: cut its North American payroll.

Asia's largest automaker, which hasn't shed workers in 24 years of building cars in the U.S., is exhausting options to trim costs after halting work on a Prius plant in Mississippi, idling a Texas truck factory for 15 weeks and planning to pare U.S. and Canadian output next month.

"If we don't see a rebound by the second half of next year, they'd probably have to consider layoffs," said Haig Stoddard, an analyst at forecaster IHS Global Insight Inc. in Troy, Michigan. "Toyota was expanding to catch up with demand. Now it's got itself stuck with overcapacity for the first time."

Adding to the pressure on North American operations amid a 13 percent slump in U.S. sales will be Toyota's first operating loss in 71 years. Toyota yesterday projected a deficit of 150 billion yen ($1.7 billion) in the year ending March, erasing a forecast for a 600 billion yen profit.

Job cuts can't be ruled out as sales continue to fall, said Jim Wiseman, vice president of external affairs for Toyota's North American production unit.

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