General Motors plans to reduce its US work force by about 7% for a fourth consecutive year in 2005, chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner said, according to the Associated Press (AP).
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That means about 8,000 hourly and salaried positions at the world’s largest automaker will be eliminated through attrition and retirement over the next 12 months, the report noted.
Struggling to trim costs in the face of rising health care expenses and other factors, GM each year since 2002 has cut about 2% to 3% of its salaried work force, 5% to 6% of its hourly work force and about 10% of its contractors, AP added.
“That’s about what it was in 2004. We’re not exactly sure about 2005, but we don’t think it will be any different than last year, or what it has been in 2002, 2003 and 2004,” Wagoner reportedly told the Detroit Free Press during an interview Sunday at the North American International Auto Show.
GM had about 198,000 hourly and salaried workers in the United States in 2000 and now has 153,000, AP added.
The news agency noted that the company announced last month that it plans to offer another round of early retirement offers and buyout packages to an undetermined number of its 38,000 US salaried workers early this year.
