Ford Will Slash 7,000 Jobs, Refocus on Pickup Trucks, Vans

In another sign of troubling auto sector news, Ford Announces Restructuring Plan to Eliminate 7,000 Jobs.

Ford Motor Co. said it is cutting 7,000 salaried employees, or about 10% of its white-collar workforce, as part of Chief Executive Jim Hackett’s broader plan to revitalize the auto maker.

In an email sent to employees Monday, Mr. Hackett said the cuts include some buyouts and layoffs that already have occurred, and the process will be completed by August. The cuts will save about $600 million annually and are part of a broader, multiyear restructuring that will result in about $11 billion in charges.

The reductions will include 800 layoffs in North America, where Ford already has made about 1,500 voluntary buyouts, a company spokesman said.

US and European Changes

• Europe: Ford will shrink operations in Europe and South America by moving away from traditional retail car buyers to focus on sales of vans and trucks to commercial customers.
• US: Ford will phase out car lines like the once-popular Fusion family car. It will add more-lucrative pickup truck and sport-utility vehicles, like a new Bronco rugged SUV slated to go on sale next year.

Does Everybody Want Trucks and Vans?

Millennials are not buying much of anything, at least compared to their boomer parents. And I keep wondering when the boomer love affair with trucks and huge SUVs ends.

A major stock market decline perhaps? Or will it take a boomer die off?

The latter is not too far off, at an accelerating pace.

Also on deck are self-driving vehicles that will reduce the need for cars in large cities altogether.

The two huge drivers going forward are massive demographic changes coupled with huge shifts on the role of cars and how those cars function.

In 10 years, neither Ford nor GM will look like they do today.