"The Siemens Group in Portugal continues to strengthen its teams in most of the areas in which it operates, having recruited around 80 additional employees in the first five months of the current business year, with more than 4170 direct employees already."

According to information released by the German technology and industrial group Siemens, the cut of 6,000 jobs will mainly affect the digitalisation division of factories and is justified by the need to adjust production capacity to the drop in demand.

Of that total, almost half (2,850) correspond to job cuts in Germany, with the reduction being made through voluntary departures and not layoffs.

“The drop in demand, mainly in the Chinese and German markets, combined with increased competitive pressure, has significantly reduced orders and revenues in the industrial automation sector,” the German group said in a statement.