25,000 Ford workers are gone; more still to leave

Ford said 25,000 U.S. hourly workers have left the company since it offered buyouts and early retirements in September to shrink excess capacity and cut record losses.

As many as 12,000 more may leave by the end of the year, and new offers will be made to about 1,800 Ohio workers after the company said today it will close a casting factory and suspend work at an engine plant for about a year.

Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford is cutting jobs and closing plants to match lower U.S. sales and market share after losing a record $12.6 billion last year. The casting plant is the 10th North American factory closing announced by Ford, with six more planned by 2012.

Ford said last year that 38,000 hourly workers had accepted the buyouts, and revised the figure to 37,000 in a regulatory filing earlier this year. The 25,000 accounts for actual departures as of today, said Joe Hinrichs, Ford's vice president of North American manufacturing, in a conference call with reporters. The figure changes each week, he said.