Ford Motor Co. aims to cut about 10 percent of its global workforce amid Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields’s drive to boost profits and the auto maker’s sliding stock price, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The move comes as Ford targets $3 billion in cost reductions for 2017, a plan intended to improve profitability in 2018 even as U.S. auto sales plateau. Ford’s share price has suffered during Mr. Fields’s three-year tenure, and the company’s market value has slipped far behind those of Tesla Inc. and General Motors Co. The job cuts, expected to be outlined as early as this week, largely target salaried employees. It is unclear if the plan includes reductions in the hourly workforce at Ford’s factories in the U.S. and abroad. Ford has 200,000 employees globally, with half of them working in North America. Ford has launched into a series of new technology investments, including a $4.5 billion electric-vehicle program and an aggressive autonomous-car project. While both programs could contribute to Ford’s longer-term prospects, the spending erodes profit margins at a time when sales of lucrative pickups and sport utilities remain strong. The auto maker’s stock price has fallen nearly 40 percent since Fields became CEO in mid-2014. Shares have fallen even as the broader U.S. auto market has grown for seven straight years. Now, as volumes stabilize, executives are turning to downsizing moves like those of a decade ago.
