Ford Motor stated Wednesday it is presenting voluntary buyouts to white-collar workforce in the U.S. as it continues to pivot towards new technologies which include all-electric automobiles.

The automaker hopes to trim at least 1,400 salaried workers as a result of the buyouts, a Ford spokesman advised CNBC. It has been shrinking its workforce as part of an $11 billion restructuring plan, letting go about 7,000 salaried workers, which include 800 in the U.S., previous yr.

Ford will provide the buyouts to selected salaried workforce who are suitable for retirement as of Dec. 31. Employees have right until Oct. 23 to accept the buyout and all those who really don’t could be laid off.

“The plan is part of our underway and ongoing system to boost Ford’s world wide fitness and success, which features reprioritizing merchandise and providers and staffing the business appropriately, so we’re extra streamlined and productive,” spokesman T.R. Reid stated.

The business had a worldwide workforce of one hundred ninety,000 folks at the stop of 2019, which include about 36,000 salaried workforce in the U.S.

The restructuring plan introduced by CEO Jim Hackett two several years in the past features manufacturing unit closures and model eliminations, reflecting the company’s change to electric and autonomous automobiles.

Chief Functioning Officer Jim Farley, who will succeed Hackett as CEO in October, “is anticipated to only speed up the changeover from common, inside combustion engineering to battery power, as perfectly as pushing into connected and autonomous auto engineering,” TheDetroitBureau.com stated.

In accordance to AutoTrends Consulting analyst Joe Philippi, Ford will will need to maintain trimming its workforce, with a concentration on designers and engineers operating on conventional gas and diesel merchandise.

Most of Ford’s white-collar workforce have been operating remotely owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Its U.S. factories resumed creation in mid-May following a virtually two-thirty day period closure that resulted in a $1.nine billion 2nd-quarter functioning decline.

Farley has stated that repairing and accelerating Ford’s North American operations to reach ten{312eb768b2a7ccb699e02fa64aff7eccd2b9f51f6a579147b7ed58dbcded82a2} financial gain margins remains a further precedence. “The restructuring plan laid out by Hackett is barely halfway as a result of and there might be other big moves to arrive,” TheDetroitBureau.com stated.

In trading Wednesday, Ford shares rose 1.six{312eb768b2a7ccb699e02fa64aff7eccd2b9f51f6a579147b7ed58dbcded82a2} to $six.ninety four.

electric automobiles, Ford Motor, layoffs, restructuring, voluntary buyout, white-collar workers