General Motors has already cut its U.S. hourly workforce by 21 percent and salaried staff by 18 percent under its turnaround plan, but if its original goals are still in place, another 10,500 jobs will be eliminated by January.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson has said that the company has made progress under the turnaround plan, but needs to keep its foot on the gas. It's unclear exactly how many jobs will be cut, but most are likely to be hourly positions. If expectations are correct, roughly 350 of the 1300 white-collar workers scheduled for layoff will be retiring this year.
GM plans to complete most of its restructuring before the year is up, so it can begin 2010 with a clean slate. The accounting department will not see any layoffs, due to the flurry of activity involved in preparing the company for its first public offering, expected in 2010.
Trying to focus on the positive, Henderson claimed that the company was exceeding its own expectations for sales since emerging from bankruptcy. Equinox sales, for instance, jumped 94 percent over last year, largely thanks to a new, fuel-efficient model.
Source: The Detroit Free Press
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