Ford Motor plans to cut about 3,000 jobs, a move that will affect salaried and contract workers, according to an internal email sent to employees.
Automotive News was the first to report the news after reviewing the email. TechCrunch has confirmed the layoffs and viewed the internal email.
The job cuts, which many have anticipated since Ford launched its restructuring efforts, will affect employees throughout its global operations. However, most of the cuts will be in the U.S., Canada and people working at the Ford Business Services operation in India. About 2,000 are salaried employees and 1,000 are agency personal.
The letter to employees, written by Bill Ford and CEO Jim Farley, notes that the layoffs follow significant restructuring in Ford operations outside of North America over the past couple of years.
Here is an excerpt:
We worked differently than in the past, examining each team’s shifting work statement connected to our Ford+ plan. We are eliminating work, as well as reorganizing and simplifying functions throughout the business. You will hear more specifics from the leaders of your area of the business later this week.
None of this changes the fact that this is a difficult and emotional time. The people leaving the company this week are friends and coworkers and we want to thank them for all they have contributed to Ford. We have a duty to care for and support those affected — and we will live up to this duty — providing not only benefits but significant help to find new career opportunities.
Farley has spoken publicly about the potential for job cuts in recent months. During the company’s second-quarter earnings call, Farley foreshadowed coming layoffs.
“We absolutely have too many people in certain places. No doubt about it. And we have skills that don’t work anymore, and we have jobs that need to change,” Farley said in July 2022. “We have lots of new work statements that we’ve never had before. We are literally virtually reshaping our company, like every part of our company. And you know the ICE business, we want to simplify it, we want to make sure the skills we have and the works statements we have are as lean as possible. We know our costs are not competitive at Ford. That’s what I mean by we are not satisfied.”
The jobs cuts come amid a restructuring and cost-cutting effort that launched early this year. In March, Ford announced a restructuring that split its electric vehicles and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles into two units. Ford Model e is dedicated to EVs, software and connected vehicle technology and Ford Blue continues to build out internal combustion vehicles to drive profitability. Ford also created a third unit called Ford Pro that provides commercial and government customers with work-ready ICE and electric products and services to manage fleets.
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