(DETROIT) — Ford plans to cut 3,000 jobs across the U.S., Canada and India, the automaker said in a letter to employees on Monday, describing the reductions as part of a “reshaping” to get more competitive in the electric vehicle (EV) market.
Those affected include 2,000 salaried and 1,000 agency positions, Ford said in a statement. A spokesperson told ABC News the cuts affect about 6% of salaried workers in the U.S. and Canada.
Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, delivered news of the layoffs in a letter to employees, which was first reported by Auto News on Monday.
Affected employees will be notified later this week, according to Auto News.
The workforce reduction comes as the company is trying “to address all aspects of costs to improve our competitiveness and ensure we can fully invest in growth,” according to the statement.
Ford sales have recently, generally outpaced overall auto industry sales. In July, the company saw a 36.6% increase in vehicle sales compared to the previous year, which Ford attributed to “improved inventory flow.”
Farley and Executive Chairman Bill Ford said in the letter that staying competitive and adapting for the future means “redeploying resources and addressing our cost structure, which is uncompetitive versus traditional and new competitors.”
The executives specifically pointed to connected vehicles and EVs as business areas where the company has “an opportunity to lead.”
During a quarterly earnings call in July, Farley said that Ford “absolutely [has] too many people in certain places, no doubt about it.”
“Traditionally, the auto industry has cut costs often indiscriminately as an effect, of course, from lower auto demands through economic softness and shifts for customer preferences,” he said then. “What we’re undertaking forward is totally different than that. We’re reshaping virtually every aspect of the way we’ve done business for a century. And we’re doing that for a new industry based on new technology, new skills and a new promise for customer value.”
Ford has separately expanded hiring — especially in EV manufacturing. In early June, the company announced a $3.7 billion investment into factories across the Midwest, including in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri.
That spending will create 6,200 union manufacturing jobs and 74,000 indirect jobs by the end of 2026, the company said in a news release at the time.
Those positions are all geared toward the EV market. Ford plans to release an electric Mustang, Ranger pickup truck and professional commercial vehicle.
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