There are three automobile giants in United States of America and they have played a considerable role in the ups-downs of US economy from the time they founded. First let us have a look at these three automobile giants and then we will go into their impact on US economy.

General Motors:
General Motors, well known as GM, is the largest automobile industry in the world. It has ruled as Sales Leader for 77 years in the automobile world. GM manufactures in almost 34 countries while it sells and provide services for vehicles in almost 140 countries. There are 252,000 employees working in GM. The statistics of the year 2008 say that GM has sold almost 8.35 million cars along with trucks all around the world.

Ford Motors:
Number two in America is the Ford Motor Company which is the fourth leading automobile company of the world. Ford has almost a hundred plants all around the world. As per the year 2007, Ford had produced more than 6 million vehicles and the numbers of employees was 245,000.

Chrysler:
The third American car company is Chrysler, founded by Walter P. Chrysler in 1925. Chrysler has sold more than one million trucks (1,055,003) and 398,119 cars. It was great performance by Chrysler.

From the above statistics and figures you may have an idea about their contribution into the US Economy. Well, it is almost about 3.6% of total output. But right now the situation is different. After 27 years, that for the first time sales of automobiles has declined with a high rate. The General Motors and Chrysler had the worst turn down. As there is a decline in sales of automobiles in USA up to 30% down, it will directly affect economy to reduce 1%. As it’s a huge reduction in sales of automobiles, the companies will start to layoff their employees. As many people become laidoff, the inflation will increase and the economy will go down.

The American government is helping these three automobile giants from getting down as they can affect the US Economy very badly. They had used almost twenty five billion dollars ($24.9 billion) for helping these three automobile giants. The only intention behind these bailout funds is to give operating cash. With the help of this bailout, the companies can pay their employees and this way the bailout can save many jobs in the automobile industry. But as the recession period is going, the demand is reducing for buying the automobiles and whether these companies can get the bailout or not, they will have to cut off their production limit and layoff their employees anyway.

Thus the automobile industry (the big three) of America has a nasty effect on the US Economy in such a worst period of recession.