The strongest automakers with operations in Orange County held steady in the past year as others cut jobs in what was the worst period for the industry in recent memory.
The nine largest automakers with operations here reported an 8.3% decline in local workers in the past 12 months to 2,770 people, according to this week’s Business Journal list, which ranks automakers by Orange County employment.
The automakers do sales and marketing and other corporate work here. Some also design, research and develop vehicles locally.
Drops were more pronounced at individual automakers.
No. 4 Brea-based American Suzuki Motor Corp. shed the most jobs—80—for a 25% decline to 242 people.
American Suzuki, part of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp., has been hard hit by the auto slump with 2009 sales down 54% from a year earlier to 38,689 vehicles.
The automaker saw its January sales continue to decline with a 48% drop compared to a year earlier to 1,885 vehicles.
No. 7 Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler Group LLC saw a 40% decline to 60 local workers as it reworked its business after exiting bankruptcy.
A year earlier, Chrysler had 100 people working out of its Irvine office.
Hyundai
The employment tally for all the automakers would have been worse if not for No. 1 Hyundai Motor Co., which was estimated flat at 1,126 local workers.
South Korea’s Hyundai dominates the list, representing 41% of the jobs at the nine companies.
Without Hyundai added into the mix, the remaining eight automakers saw employment down 13.6% to 1,644 workers.
Hyundai was one of the few to report a gain in U.S. sales last year.
The automaker’s Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America and Irvine-based Kia Motors America Inc.—which make up Hyundai’s combined entry on the list—were among just three automakers to see higher 2009 sales.
The only other automaker in the U.S. to report a sales uptick was New Jersey’s Subaru of America Inc., part of Japan’s Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.
In 2009, Hyundai’s U.S. sales rose 8.3% to 435,064 vehicles. For the year, Kia’s sales were up 9.7% to 300,063 vehicles.
Overall U.S. auto sales fell 21% in 2009 to 10.4 million vehicles, the worst since the early 1970s.
For 2010, analysts predict the U.S. will see at least some degree of improvement.
Most expect total sales to come in at around 11.4 million vehicles.
Most automakers saw an increase in January sales. Hyundai saw a 24% gain to 30,503 vehicles sold.
Hyundai saw a dramatic gain in market share throughout 2009 as vehicles with low gas mileage and inexpensive prices proved a good fit with the down economy.
Hyundai rose to 4.2% in overall market share during 2009 after holding at 3% for much of 2008.
Sister company Kia had 3.1% of the market in 2009, up from about 2%.
Even so, neither automaker added workers in the past year. Hyundai remained flat with 910 people here. Kia remained roughly unchanged at 216 people.
Others
No. 5 Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc., the U.S. arm of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp., saw the closure of a design studio here last year.
The company shut its Mitsubishi Research and Design of America office and design center in March.
The studio previously did work on the Eclipse coupe and Spyder sports car. Sixty employees were let go, according to Business Journal estimates.
U.S. Mitsubishi sales for 2009 fell 44.4% from a year earlier to 54,061 vehicles.
No. 6 Ford Motor Co. has seen local design work leave with the relocation of a brand and the sale of others.
The automaker saw its local workforce decline 38% to 87 workers, largely due to the overall economic slump.
Ford had operated the U.S. base of its Premier Automotive Group of European brands in Irvine since 2001. The operation has been gutted in the past several years.
Ford’s operation originally included Land Rover North America Inc., Jaguar Cars North America, Volvo Cars of North America LLC and Ford’s former stake in Aston Martin.
Land Rover moved operations to New Jersey after the 2008 sale of the business and sister company Jaguar to India’s Tata Motors Ltd.
Ford sold Aston Martin to investors in 2007.
Ford’s remaining European brand, Volvo, moved its North American headquarters from Irvine to New Jersey in 2008.
Ford moved Lincoln Mercury’s headquarters here in the late 1990s to immerse the business in California’s more competitive auto market. It shifted the headquarters back to the Detroit area a few years ago.
Ford still does some design here.
No. 3 Irvine’s Mazda North American Operations has 445 workers.
The company, part of Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp., shed 110 workers a year ago as the auto slump started to deepen.
No. 2 Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., with offices in Irvine, saw its workforce decline by 5.3% to 450 people.
The U.S. arm of Toyota houses several units in OC, including its Calty Design Research Inc. in Newport Beach, where it develops concept cars and does other research and design work.
The list saw one newcomer: No. 7 Irvine-based Fisker Automotive Inc., which has about 60 local workers and is adding jobs as it prepares to launch its first vehicle.
The plug-in hybrid automaker is developing a luxury sedan, the Karma, and a sports car, the Sunset, which run off a combination gas and battery engine developed with Irvine-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc.
The company recently closed an engineering office in Michigan and is in the process of transferring 30 jobs to its Irvine headquarters.
