Hundreds of thousands of steel industry jobs have been lost in the European Union.

Error detected

The claim states 'hundreds of thousands' of jobs lost, implying at least 200,000. EUROFER, the primary industry source, reports 'nearly 100,000' direct steel jobs lost over 15 years — roughly half the claimed magnitude.

'Hundreds of thousands' (plural) implies ≥200,000; the actual figure of ~100,000 falls in the 'tens of thousands' range, making the claim an overestimation by approximately a factor of two.

Omissions

• The MEP did not specify a time period for the job losses. EUROFER data refers to losses 'over the past 15 years' (from approximately 2010–2011 to 2025).
• The figure of 'nearly 100,000' refers to direct steel jobs only. Including indirect jobs supported by the steel sector, the total employment impact could be larger, but no precise figure for total (direct + indirect) jobs lost was found from an authoritative source.
• The original Romanian text mentioned both 'sute de mii' (hundreds of thousands) and 'zeci de mii' (tens of thousands) — the speaker may have self-corrected, but the normalized claim focuses on the inflated figure.
• The exact publication date of the EUROFER press release could not be confirmed; however, it describes data clearly predating the session date of 2026-05-18.

Sources

• PrimaryEUROFER (European Steel Association)Nearly 100,000 steel jobs have already been lost in the past 15 years, with more cuts looming now due to unprecedented challenges.
• PrimaryEUROFER StatisticsThe steel sector employs 298,000 people directly and is responsible for up to 1.55 million indirect jobs.
• PrimaryEUROFER — European Steel in Figures 2025The EU steel industry supports over 2.5 million jobs. The EU steel industry creates around €177 billion of Gross Value Added.