General Motors to Slash Workforce by 10,000 Employees

General Motors today announced that it decided to reduce salaried employment globally by 10,000 workers to 63,000 by the end of the year as part of the company's plans to cut costs and counteract the economic recession. More importantly, the American automaker decided to let go the employees in order to become financially viable, as required by the United States government in last December.

“Salaried employment reductions will vary by global region, depending on the staffing levels in the region and market conditions. Details of the reductions and separation programs will be shared directly by regional leadership with the affected employees,” General Motors said in a statement for the press, explaining that all affected employees will receive a notification in the next months.

“These difficult actions are necessitated by a severe drop in vehicle sales worldwide and by the need to restructure GM for long-term viability. GM outlined the need for the reductions in its restructuring plan submitted to Congress on December 2, 2008. The announcement this week begins implementation of this aspect of the plan.”

Basically, we're talking about 3,400 workers in the United States that will lose their jobs, with the majority of layoffs to take place by May 1, 2009. The rest employees come from various other markets, including Canada and several European countries.

Beside the aforementioned job cut, General Motors also said it will temporarily reduce salaries of US employees starting May 1. The reduction will be effective through the end of the year, when it will be reviewed, the American automaker said in the statement. The salary cut measure consists of a 10 percent reduction for US executive employees and 3 to 7 percent lowered salaries for other salaried employees.