The car manufacturer reached an agreement with the German Works Council, which involves a mix of redundancies, early retirement and opting not to renew temporary contracts or refill vacancies.

BMW has made use of a short-time working hours scheme in which the German government partially pays wages for lost hours.

BMW employs more than 120 000 people worldwide. As a result, the job cuts will affect mainly its German workforce, but will also impact certain other employees in other parts of the world.

The global auto industry expects to sell 59.5 million automobiles in 2020, a sharp decrease of over 20 percent year-on-year.

The sector is expected to experience a downward trend due to the slowing global economy and the advent of a pandemic in all key economies. (ILKHA)