German carmaker BMW announced Friday a plan to cut thousands of jobs next year in its German workforce to raise profitability.

No representative of the company confirmed the number of job cuts, but the Der Spiegel news magazine Website put the figure at 8,000. According to Daniel Schmidt, a spokesperson at the Munich-based company, the most affected by the decisions will be the temporary workers, but some permanent workers would be affected as well.

He also said that the company plans to raise profitability by cutting costs for materials, development and staff.

"We are working to change the trend in the development of our profitability. That also comprises personnel savings," the spokesperson said, according to Reuters.

The world’s biggest carmaker has almost 108,000 workers worldwide, 80,000 of whom are employed in Germany, according to company figures.

The decision comes after in the past few years, big German auto manufacturers Daimler and Volkswagen and Peugeot-Citroen in France have laid out broad plans to restructure plants in Western Europe, a slumping market.

Other news about the jobs plan is expected in January of February.

The investor received the decision with enthusiasm, pushing BMW shares up nearly 3 percent to 41.58 euros in Frankfurt.

BMW plans to increase global sales by over 40 percent by 2020, to more than two million vehicles a year.