Toyota Motor says it has terminated the contracts of about 1,000 workers at a subsidiary in China as it battles a sales slump there. That's roughly 5 percent of its workforce.

The company says it dismissed dispatch workers at a joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group before their contracts expired, and says they will get a compensation package.

The joint venture's sales were even lower in the first half of this year than a year earlier when the country was battling a surge in coronavirus cases.

They moved 5 percent fewer units, reflecting an overall decline in sales of Japanese autos in the Chinese market.

Analysts say China's slow economic recovery and intensifying competition in the electric vehicle sector were also factors in the decline.