Employees

Significant decline in employee numbers

The number of employees has declined significantly in recent months. On March 31, 2009, ThyssenKrupp had 192,521 employees worldwide, 6,853 or 3.4% fewer than at the end of the last fiscal year (September 30, 2008). While Elevator increased its workforce due to business expansion, all other segments were affected by job cuts.

Compared with the prior-year quarter ended March 31, 2008 the headcount was also down, by 3,307 employees or 1.7%. The reduction took place mainly in the Technologies and Services segments.

The number of employees decreased both in Germany and abroad. Compared with September 30, 2008, the headcount fell by 2.6% in Germany to 82,895 employees, and by 4.1% in the rest of the world to 109,626. At the end of March 2009, 43% of our employees were employed in Germany, 23% in the rest of Europe, 15% in the NAFTA region, 8% in South America, and 11% in Asia – in particular China and India - and the rest of the world.

Owing to the – in some cases dramatic – slump in demand worldwide, short-time working was necessary at ThyssenKrupp in Germany and abroad. In the 1st half of 2008/2009 some 23,000 employees were affected in Germany, and around 16,000 in the rest of the world. The main areas involved were ThyssenKrupp Steel, ThyssenKrupp Nirosta, ThyssenKrupp Gerlach and ThyssenKrupp Bilstein. Outside Germany, short hours were mainly worked at Berco and ThyssenKrupp Acciai Speciali Terni in Italy and at ThyssenKrupp Presta in Liechtenstein. In addition, the number of temporary employees was reduced; Groupwide over 4,000 people were affected, around 2,700 of them in Germany.

New application management system

ThyssenKrupp receives around 100,000 applications in Germany each year; around the world as many as 250,000 people apply for work with the Group. In April 2008 we introduced a new application management system in Germany to process these vast numbers of applications with greater speed and efficiency and reduced administrative expense.

The new careers section of our website now features a convenient facility which allows visitors to apply for advertised jobs directly. Unsolicited applications are of course also possible. These applications are fed into the ThyssenKrupp Talent Pool, to which all HR managers in Germany have access. With the introduction of the new system, the Group has created a high-quality instrument which simplifies the application process for all involved – applicants and HR teams alike.