Drastic job cuts at Ford

Author: Mario Schmidtgen
Date: 22.05.2019

7,000 jobs affected worldwide

The second largest US car manufacturer Ford announced drastic job cuts on Monday: A total of 7,000 jobs shall be cut worldwide – about ten percent of the entire workforce. The employees have already been informed in a letter from Ford boss Jim Hackett.

The restructuring will begin already on Tuesday. All jobs will be cut by August, according to the letter. In this way, the company wants to save 600 million US dollars (537 million euros) a year and invest them in future technologies.

According to Hackett, jobs in administration and upper management are affected. In order to reduce bureaucracy within the company, 20 percent of management positions will be eliminated. In the future, managers and executives will be responsible for more employees than before.

The majority of the job cuts will be realized outside the USA. In the USA, only 2,300 out of a total of 7,000 jobs are to be cut, especially at the corporate headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. It is not yet known where the remaining jobs will be cut.

Already at the beginning of the year Ford announced its intention to cut several thousand jobs in Europe. The European branch of the car manufacturer currently employs 53,000 people. This sector has recently been in crisis: In the third quarter of 2018, a loss of 282 million US dollars (245 million euros) before taxes and interest was reported.