Ford welcomes a third crew of 900 new hourly workers at its Kansas City Assembly Plant (PRNewsFoto/Ford Motor Company).
Responding to surging demand for its F-Series pickup trucks, Ford Motor Co. (F -1.39%) says it is hiring a third crew of workers at its Kansas City Assembly Plant to accelerate production of the trucks.
According to the company's announcement today, Ford is adding 200,000 units of production to F-Series output in 2013 (and 600,000 vehicle units overall), trying to keep up with F-Series demand that surged 23% in July. Ford notes that at 60,449 F-Series trucks sold, last month was the most successful sales month for the vehicle since 2006, before the financial crisis hit.
Ford is aiming to increase U.S. employment by 12,000 hourly jobs by 2015, plus additional salaried positions. Today's announcement will bring the company to the 75%-complete mark on that hourly employee goal. It will also move Ford almost halfway toward its goal of adding 2,000 jobs to Kansas City.
Ford says it has added 2,335 hourly jobs and 1,500 salary jobs in the United States already, this year. As of this writing, the stock's share price had fallen 2.1% today, to about $17.14.
