Panasonic: number of employees 2015-2019

Panasonic had 271,869 employees in March 2019. The company has added over 22,000 jobs since 2016.

Collaboration with Tesla

In 2012, Panasonic suffered a major dent in operating profits and began to cut thousands of jobs related to the company's activities in the consumer electronics market. However, Panasonic turned a corner in 2016 and tied up with Tesla to produce lithium-ion batteries for electric cars at a Gigafactory in Nevada. Both companies began hiring personnel to manufacture the battery cells on-site.

Labor market in Japan

Nearly 40 percent of Panasonic employees are based in Japan. The unemployment rate in Japan rose to five percent during the 2008/09 financial crisis. About two years later, many Japanese manufacturers were forced to halt operations as a result of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Ultimately, these events resulted in layoffs in the manufacturing sector. However, the reduction of unemployed women has helped Japan recover from recession, natural disasters, a weak currency, and labor shortages. In 2017, Japan's overall unemployment rate fell to 2.8 percent, and only about 2.7 percent of the female workforce were without jobs. As of 2019, women accounted for about 7.6 percent of management positions at Panasonic. This compares to about 4.9 percent in 2009.