JLR to cut 500 management jobs amid sales slump and tariff pressures

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is set to cut up to 500 management positions across the UK as part of a voluntary redundancy programme, as the luxury car maker responds to falling sales and recent trade tensions.

The Tata-owned business confirmed that around 1.5% of its UK workforce will be affected by the move, which targets managerial roles through a limited redundancy scheme.

A JLR spokesperson said: “JLR regularly offers eligible employees voluntary redundancy programmes. Through this limited UK VR programme for managers, JLR is aligning its leadership workforce for the business’s current and future needs.

“We are grateful to the Government for delivering at speed the new UK-US trade deal, which gives us the confidence to invest £3.5bn per annum to realise our strategy which is delivering.”

The decision follows a sharp decline in Q2 retail sales, with figures down 15.1% for the three months to the end of June.

The drop was largely attributed to a temporary halt in exports to the United States and the phased discontinuation of older Jaguar models.

Exports to the US were disrupted in April after the US government, under President Donald Trump’s administration, announced a new 25% tariff on imported vehicles.

Although a new agreement between the US and UK has since reduced that tariff to 10% for the first 100,000 UK-built vehicles shipped annually, the initial disruption has already impacted JLR’s quarterly performance.

The news comes after JLR posted postive full-year figures in May, announcing that it had logged over 61,000 customers on its waiting list for the Range Rover Electric.

In addition, the car marker said the reimagined electric Jaguar GT, which is expected to be priced at around £100,000 and which featured in a divisive marketing campaign to lead the relaunch of the Jaguar brand, had seen over 32,000 expressions of interest globally following its teaser tour across Europe and Asia.

Separately, Ford's chief executive Jim Farley recently commented in a speech at the Aspen Ideas Festival that “Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers" and noted that more manual, blue-collar jobs will be secure.