Things don't look so rosy for the auto industry as sales continue to plummet and work in the nation's auto-assembly plants is harder to come by, the New York Times reports.
In April, there were 206,000 workers in those plants, 2 percent less since this time last year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Auto sales dropped in June for the sixth consecutive month and have plunged 3 percent from a year ago.
“There's been a consistent reduction in plant output in the last six months, and what is ahead in the next six months could be pretty startling,” said Ron Harbour, a noted manufacturing analyst and a partner at international consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
Automakers are looking to build cars and plants outside of the U.S. to lower costs, including Ford, which announced in mid-June it would import the Focus from China instead of Mexico to save the company $500 million.
A report in June also said Tesla was close to an agreement to produce vehicles in China to bring down the costs of electric cars.
Sales of trucks and SUVs rose, though, by about 4 percent from a year earlier, according to the Times.
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