Toyota’s impact on the U.S. economy

Toyota has been a big player in the U.S. auto industry for a long time. By the company’s own account, Toyota employs more than 36,000 people in the U.S. However the troubles on Toyota’s balance sheet are having an impact: a plant for construction of Priuses has been put on hold, temporary employees at Toyota are being let go. This analyst says that could mean around 2,500 lost jobs. The good news is that regular employees will be ok, but overall the auto industry troubles are hitting Toyota hard also. This labor expert says some drop is to be expected in auto sales, because that reflects a recession. But there could be a pent up demand which could mean a good bounceback when the economy starts to recover. The news that Toyota is hurting too might put pressure on the Obama administration to bail out the auto industry. But this analyst says incentives should be placed on consumers to buy cars instead of having the government bail out the auto industry.