Partial unemployment at Airbus could turn into unemployment

Huge air gap at Airbus which is paying dearly for the Covid crisis. The European aircraft manufacturer announces the largest workforce reduction plan in its history. Airbus will indeed cut 15,000 jobs, including 5,000 in France. The shock is deep. Like Boeing, it is facing a brutal drop in orders, brutal but which appears above all lasting, this is what its CEO Guillaume Faury said.

The demand for airliners will remain lower for a long time than it was before the crisis, Airbus does not anticipate a return to normal before 2023 at the earliest or even 2025. In particular in the wide-body segment, the most affected by the collapse of international passenger traffic and the bankruptcy of many airlines around the world.

Partial unemployment will turn into unemployment for certain employees. We have been saying it since the start of this crisis: the real social shock is before us. The partial unemployment measures helped to absorb the shock, but when the order books remain low for a long time, there comes a point when there is no other choice but to reduce production capacities.

Airbus, which employs 140,000 people worldwide, will avoid forced departures as much as possible. He has a fairly high age pyramid, there will be many retirements. That said, the shock wave hits the entire aeronautical sector and its thousands of subcontractors. The state has planned long-term partial unemployment measures of up to two years: this is crucial for maintaining skills. But as we can see, even these measures have their limits.