Ford Motor Co., a Michigan-based worldwide automaker, announced that it will open about 7,000 new jobs at its main manufacturing plant in Detroit, Michigan and eight other cities nationwide. The multinational company said that they will begin the hiring process immediately beginning on January 11 and 12 at the 2-day 2011 North American International Auto Show industry preview.

During the Detroit Auto Show media preview, Mark Fields, Ford President of The Americas, said that the company is in need of thousands of new plant workers to meet its target production this year. “Ford is adding nearly 4,000 hourly jobs at several of its US plants, including 1,800 at Louisville Assembly Plant, which is preparing to launch the next-generation Ford Escape late in the year. Ford also will add 750 salaried engineering jobs in product development and manufacturing. Next year, Ford expects to add at least 2,500 more new manufacturing positions.”

Ford officials added that new jobs are also coming to other Ford manufacturing headquarters located in eight cities nationwide such as Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina; and San Jose, California. “The electrification project is driving a lot of the new hiring and employment. Ford is also recruiting salaried engineers for jobs specializing in batteries, system controls and software and energy storage to work on electric vehicles to be deployed in other plants.”