Volkswagen is giving its German workers nearly a month off over Christmas and the New Year in the wake of an emissions scandal that has hurt sales and staff morale, according to CNN.
A spokesman for the automaker confirmed that production at all Volkswagen's plants in Germany would cease on Dec. 17 and resume Jan. 11. The one exception will be lines producing the new generation of its Tiguan SUV - they'll close on Dec. 21 and resume output on Jan. 4.
The company typically shuts down in Germany between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day, although the exact length of the holiday can vary from year to year.
VW employs nearly 600,000 people around the world, more than 250,000 of them in Germany.
The spokesman said the main reason for the longer closure this year was that most plants had already achieved their production targets for the year, but market conditions and the need to carry out maintenance work were also factors.
Northwest Georgia jobless rate unchanged
The Georgia Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate in the Northwest Georgia region in October was 5.6 percent, unchanged from September.
The rate in October 2014 was 6.8 percent.
While the rate was unchanged, the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 741, or 29.1 percent, to 3,291 in October. Most of the increase was due to temporary layoffs in manufacturing. Over the year, claims are down by 216, or 6.2 percent, from 3,507 in October 2014.
Metro Dalton's unemployment rate for October was 6.4 percent, up three-tenths of a percentage point from 6.1 percent in September. The rate in October 2014 was 7.7 percent.
Georgia's seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for October was 5.7 percent, down from 5.8 percent in September. It was 6.8 percent in October 2014.
Toyota tops VW in October sales
Toyota Motor Corp. outsold Volkswagen AG globally in October for the fourth straight month to remain the world's top-selling automaker so far this year, after sales at the German carmaker suffered following the diesel emissions scandal, according to Reuters.
Toyota reported Friday its group vehicle sales totaled 8.35 million in the January-October period, more than the 8.26 million vehicles delivered by Volkswagen during the same period.
Toyota has continuously out sold Volkswagen on a year-to-date basis since July.
Earlier this month, VW said its Volkswagen brand sales fell 5.3 percent year-on-year in October, the first full month after Europe's biggest automaker admitted that it cheated diesel emissions tests in some of its cars sold in the United States since 2009.