Ford Confirms Layoffs, Says It Is Cutting About 3,000 Jobs
The job cuts come as Ford slashes costs and makes a longer-range transition to electric vehicles.
www.wsj.com
The 1% reduction in Ford’s workforce of about 183,000 mostly targets employees in the U.S., Canada and India. About 2,000 of the targeted cuts will be salaried jobs at the Dearborn, Mich., auto maker. The remaining 1,000 employees are working in contract positions with outside agencies, the company said.
The cuts weren’t unexpected. The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reported in July that layoffs were coming for white-collar staff as part of a broader restructuring to sharpen the car company’s focus on electric
Mr. Farley has said recently that Ford has too many employees, and that the existing workforce doesn’t have the expertise needed to transition to a portfolio of electric, software-laden vehicles.
He has said he aims to cut $3 billion in annual costs by 2026 as part of his goal to reach a 10% pretax profit margin by then, up from 7.3% last year.
Like many global auto makers, Ford is pouring money into electric vehicles in an effort to close the sales gap with Tesla Inc. The company has said it would spend about $50 billion through 2026 to develop EVs, targeting global sales of two million by then.
Mr. Farley earlier this year divided the company into separate divisions, including one to focus on electric vehicles and advanced technologies, and another to handle its traditional internal-combustion-vehicle lines.
He has said profits from its lineup of gasoline and diesel-engine vehicles will help fund the transition, but that part of the business must operate more efficiently.
