"Labour shortage" and "layoffs" are two frequently used words in China's manufacturing industry in recent years. According to statistics from the Guangdong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, enterprises in Guangdong Province experienced an amplification of short-term employment gaps in 2014, with a peak of 800,000 to 1 million people. At the same time, a series of actions such as Haier's layoffs, Gree and Foxconn's disguised layoffs have attracted public attention. Although the lighting industry has been extremely popular in recent years, it has been affected by the downturn of the general environment. After all, it cannot escape the curse of "the labor shortage has not yet ended, and the wave of layoffs has come to join the heat."
At the end of November, the internationally renowned lighting company Osram announced that it would cut more than 10% of its employees to save costs. The layoffs are expected to reduce 4,700 jobs in order to improve competitiveness and profitability. This is also the most representative large-scale layoff of LED lighting companies. In fact, as early as July this year, Osram announced that it planned to lay off 7,800 employees worldwide. This layoff plan is expected to save the company 1.3 billion euros. In the past few years, Osram has closed 11 production facilities around the world, laying off a total of 8,700 people. Currently, the company has only 600 million euros in available funds.
The development of the industry is like a roller coaster
According to estimates from market research institutions, the output value of the LED lighting market in 2014 was US$35.3 billion, an increase of 47.8% compared with 2013. The penetration rate of LED lighting in 2014 will also increase to 32.7%. Moreover, global LED lighting demand will surge by 60% in 2014, with household lighting growing the most. It will surge by 90% in 2015, much higher than the 37% for commercial use and 57% for industrial use. Among them, the penetration rates of bulbs and lamp tubes, which are the most widely used, reach 20% and 15% respectively.
Nevertheless, these eye-catching data will bring excitement and a boost to the industry. Although the industry market recovered at the beginning of the new year in 2014 and had a prosperous period, the excitement dissipated quickly after all, and could not cover up the downturn of the lighting industry in 2014. What is left is the industry's constant complaints.
The bankruptcy of LED lighting companies has not stopped in 2014. Lighting companies have successively laid off employees and reduced costs in order to cope with the crisis in the LED industry. In essence, the main reason for Zhaoqi's layoffs is directly related to the industry's downturn, which is affected by the overall economic downturn and real estate decline. News of Osram's massive layoffs has lingered. Recently, reporters learned that a Foshan lighting company had cut more than 40 workers at the end of the year. The reason for the cuts was also to save corporate expenses. In addition, according to the investigation and interviews of the planning team of this newspaper, the employment situation in the lighting industry fluctuates significantly. In the peak season, more people are hired to meet the needs of rushing orders, and in the off-season, 50% of the employees are reduced because there is no need to overload the costs beyond the order needs.
"One wave comes after another"
Data from the Guangdong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security show that enterprises in Guangdong Province experienced an enlargement of short-term employment gaps after the holidays, with a peak of 800,000 to 1 million people. Among them, the peak labor shortage in the seven cities in the Pearl River Delta is 650,000 people. Looking at the cities, Shenzhen currently lacks 150,000 workers, followed by Dongguan and Foshan, which have a shortage of 100,000 and 80,000 workers respectively. At the beginning of this year, the planning team of our newspaper conducted an investigation and analysis on the "labor shortage" phenomenon in the industry. The essence of the "labor shortage" is the problem of economic form and enterprise transformation and upgrading. The data shows that 93.75% of lighting companies said there is a staff shortage, but the staff gap is not very large. 60.00% of lighting companies said that the staff gap ratio is within 5.00%, 26.67% of lighting companies said that the staff gap is in the range of 10.00%-15.00%, and only 13.33% of lighting companies have a staff gap of more than 15.00%. Among them, lighting companies with a staff shortage of 15.00% basically recruit general workers.
"The labor shortage has not ended yet, and the wave of layoffs is coming again to help." It was recently reported that Osram is implementing a cost-saving plan called "Push", which includes reducing 21% of the company's workforce and approximately 8,700 positions. At the same time, the company will gradually close a quarter of its 43 factories. This plan is expected to save the company 1.2 billion euros, or approximately 1.63 billion U.S. dollars. Coincidentally, the American chip manufacturer Broadcom recently announced that it will close its baseband chip business and lay off 2,500 employees. In fact, as of the end of last year, Broadcom had 125,500 employees worldwide, which means that the scale of the layoffs will be 20%. Previously, the international giant Philips' massive layoffs in order to reduce operating costs has aroused considerable industry attention. It can be seen that the "downsizing" craze for leaner troops and simpler administration has created one wave after another in the LED industry.
The overall demand for labor in the industry is rising
With the "downsizing" actions of the international lighting giants of "do nothing but become a blockbuster", a series of concerns have arisen in the industry. Is the lighting industry going into a dead end? However, if you think carefully, you can find that most of the downsizing actions of the lighting giants are based on streamlined troops and streamlined administration. With the transformation of traditional lighting to LED lighting, the business focus of Philips, GE, Osram and other companies has shifted. In order to streamline their business, focus on LED, and reduce labor costs, layoffs have become a necessary measure. It is a self-requested measure and the icing on the cake.
As for the theme of this planning, the planning team of our newspaper conducted a preliminary analysis of the employment situation of lighting companies in 2014. From the feedback from industry management personnel and lighting company leaders, we found that the overall employment demand in the industry is gradually rising. Among them, 47.62% of the companies have increased their employment this year, 23.81% have had little change (normal) in their employment situation this year, and only 28.57% have seen a decrease in their employment.
According to the survey, most of the increases in the number of employees by companies are in response to the company's future development and expansion of production needs. These companies are mainly well-known large companies in the industry, and some small and medium-sized processing enterprises are expanding their scale as orders increase, and the number of employees in the companies is also increasing. It can be seen that the growth of enterprise employment is closely related to the scale and strength of the enterprise. However, some business people reported to reporters that the company's labor situation is directly related to the company's orders. In fact, lighting company orders generally vary from season to season. When there are many orders, more labor is needed, and when there are few orders, less labor is needed. Often throughout the year, although there are ups and downs in labor, the change is not big.
For companies with reduced employment, during the investigation, the reporter found that in addition to some small and medium-sized enterprises that have encountered "Waterloo" in their development and need to lay off employees to reduce labor costs, the reason for the reduction in employment of some companies is that the addition of automated equipment has replaced the original huge number of labor. It has to be said that the replacement of labor by machines saves companies from worries about difficulty in recruiting workers. However, most of the issues such as machine costs and maintenance, especially processing companies, are still in the wait-and-see stage.
Small businesses are short of general workers. Large companies are short of "high-level workers."
At the same time, the planning team of our newspaper also conducted a comparative investigation and analysis on the changes and flows of different positions in the company this year. The results showed that general workers are the positions with the most obvious changes and flows in the company, accounting for 57.14%. Enterprises that require a large number of general workers are mainly small and medium-sized downstream enterprises. The relevant person in charge of a lighting company told reporters that in the lighting industry, most of the companies complaining of labor shortages are downstream companies, mainly labor-intensive industries, and stamping and assembly require a large number of general workers. "Generally, the turnover rate of front-line workers in enterprises is about 10% to 15%." The relevant person in charge of the above-mentioned lighting company believes that due to the relatively high labor intensity, although the salary and benefits of enterprise employees have improved in recent years, the labor shortage in the Pearl River Delta is ultimately caused by the Pearl River Delta's salary advantages no longer being the same; at the same time, with the transfer of industries in the Pearl River Delta, some migrant laborers have chosen to find employment near their hometowns.
In addition, the mobility of marketing personnel and technical personnel ranks second and third in the comparison of changes in different positions in the industry, accounting for 52.38% and 42.86% respectively. Companies with a large demand for marketing personnel and technical personnel are mainly well-known large enterprises in the industry. It is understood that experienced and senior marketers and technicians are the most popular in the industry, and most of them will be willful in order to find an employer that is more suitable for them. On the other hand, the reason for the large turnover of marketing personnel and technical personnel is also the lack of a talent training mechanism in the industry. The lack of professional talents has led to a significant increase in the demand for this type of employment in many large enterprises, many of which are high-end positions with a monthly salary of more than 10,000 yuan.
Attachment: List of companies with partial layoffs around the world in 2014
Zumtobel Lighting:
600 positions, accounting for approximately 8% of the company's positions
Reason: increased from 4% in 2014 to 5-6 in 2015 %, and is expected to increase to 8-10% in 2016-2017
Qualcomm:
To reduce 600 employees worldwide
Reason: Will focus on business transformation and expand new business areas
Taiwan Fuju Solar:
Fusu Energy, a subsidiary of Ronghua, a listed company in Taiwan, has carried out its second layoff plan. A total of 69 employees will be laid off this time.
Reason: Due to global excess polysilicon production capacity and low market prices, Fusu Energy continues to operate at a loss. In order to reduce operating expenses out, so it made a second layoff plan
Intel:
It will close its assembly and testing factory in Costa Rica and lay off 1,500 employees
Reason: Due to global excess polysilicon production capacity, the market price is still low, resulting in the Continuing operating losses, in order to reduce operating expenses, a second layoff plan was made
GTAT:
Laying off 890 employees will close the Arizona factory originally scheduled to manufacture sapphire screens for Apple
Reason: GT, a supplier of sapphire screen glass to Apple, suddenly declared bankruptcy. The reason was not announced, but the industry speculates that the company's bankruptcy is directly related to Apple's temporary change of mind (deciding not to use sapphire screens in two new mobile phones)
American chip manufacturer AMD:
The third round of layoffs since 2011. In November 2011, AMD announced a global layoff of 10%, affecting about 1,400 employees; in October 2012, AMD announced a global layoff of about 15%; as of the third quarter of this year, AMD had a total of 10,149 employees, and a 7% layoff means that 710 employees will be affected
Reason: It will help the company save $9 million in the fourth quarter and $850 in the second year. 00,000 US dollars
Export ratio increased by 35%, and export-oriented enterprises are not having a hard time
2014 is about to pass. Even in the past year, the development of the industry has been like a roller coaster, sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Compared with the sluggishness of the domestic market, the overseas market is broader at this stage. my country's lamp exports continue to grow. In 2014, my country's LED lamp exports are expected to reach 12 billion US dollars, which will increase by about 35% compared with 2013.
According to relevant survey data, the export volume of the entire industry reached 17.9 billion yuan, an increase of 14.06% compared with 15.7 billion yuan in the first half of 2013. The second quarter increased by 22.09% compared with the first quarter. Among them, the import volume in the first half of the year was approximately 1.28 billion yuan, a decrease of 3.17% from 1.33 billion yuan in the first half of 2013. It is reported that in the first half of 2014, my country's total export volume of electric light source products was 5.021 billion yuan, with an export value of 3.064 billion yuan. The two data were down 3.7% and 6.33% respectively compared with the first half of 2013. In addition, the total export value of lighting products was 12.646 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.49% in the first half of 2013.
However, based on data analysis, the export momentum of electric light source products is no longer as good as before. Affected by the global phase-out plan for incandescent lamps and the development of LED products, the export growth rate of main electric light source products such as incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps has dropped significantly. On the contrary, due to the rapid development of LED lighting products this year, it has driven the export growth of lighting products and even the entire industry. The export of lighting products has increased rapidly. At present, the export volume of lighting products accounts for about 70% of the entire industry's export volume.
ANNA