Employees

Significant decline in employee numbers

The number of employees decreased further. On March 31, 2010, ThyssenKrupp had 172,576 employees worldwide, 19,945 or 10.4% fewer than a year earlier. In particular the Materials Services business area employed fewer people on account of disposals. However, the headcount at Steel Americas increased.

Compared with September 30, 2009 the number of employees fell by 14,919 or 8.0%. The trend was down both in Germany and in other countries. The workforce in Germany decreased by 12.2% to 71,310, in other countries it was down by 4.7% to 101,266. This means that at the end of March 2010, 41% of employees were based in Germany, 24% in the rest of Europe, 13% in the NAFTA region, 11% in Asia – in particular China and India – 9% in South America, and 2% in the rest of the world.

Towards the end of the 1st half 2009/2010, only 7,188 employees were still affected by short-time working in the ThyssenKrupp Group worldwide – compared with a high of 38,020 in April 2009. Since summer 2009 short-time working has fallen continuously. For example, the number of workers on short time in the Steel Europe business area decreased from 14,004 in April 2009 to only 819 in March 2010. However, an end to this job-protection measure is not yet foreseeable for this fiscal year.

Establishment of ThyssenKrupp Business Services and ThyssenKrupp IT Services

Major changes to the workforce structure are currently taking place in the Corporate area. ThyssenKrupp Business Services GmbH and ThyssenKrupp IT Services GmbH, set up as part of the reorganization of the Group, are taking on responsibility for selected standardizable and competence-based processes that do not belong to the core activities of the Group companies. They are focusing and optimizing these processes to create sustainable cost advantages. The range of internal services extends from payroll to accounting to communications and IT services.

Pre-existing shared services structures are being utilized in the establishment of the new units. The concept is focused initially on Germany but will later be extended throughout the Group.

Following the launch of the two companies in October 2009 the workforce had grown to 578 by March 31, 2010. A further increase to around 700 employees is planned in this fiscal year; in the medium term we expect a headcount of over 1,500.