Vehicle Shortage Puts Global Economy at Risk

So many jobs depend on automaking, this is why the industry’s production problems are causing tedious pain to several businesses and organizations.

The Opel factory in Eisenach, Germany, is halting production and doesn’t plan to restart until next year. Trouble in the auto industry, a powerful engine of the global economy, is threatening growth and sending concerns across sectors, companies and communities that depend on carmakers for money and jobs.

For every car or truck that does not roll off an assembly line in Detroit, Stuttgart or Shanghai, jobs are in jeopardy. They may be miners digging ore for steel in Finland, workers molding tires in Thailand, or Volkswagen employees in Slovakia installing instrument panels in sport utility vehicles.

Their livelihoods are at the mercy of supply shortages and shipping chokeholds that are forcing factories to curtail production.

The auto industry accounts for about 3 percent of global economic output, and in carmaking countries like Germany, Mexico, Japan or South Korea, or states like Michigan, the percentage is much higher. A slowdown in automaking can leave scars that take years to recover from.