Ford Motor Co. announced plans to boost its US manpower by adding over 7,000 new hourly and salaried workers at its various facilities in the country. The new jobs are slated for this year all the way through 2012. Ford officials revealed that the company aims to add nearly 4,000 hourly jobs at some of its US assembly lines this year. Around 1,800 of those will be put at its assembly plant in Louisville, Kentucky, which is being groomed to be the main base for the manufacturing of its the next-generation Ford Escape. The company will also need to hire nearly 750 salaried engineering jobs to expand its operations in Ford’s product development and manufacturing unit.

Other new jobs will be distributed to other Ford locations. The company will also hire salaried engineers who will work on the batteries, system controls, software and energy storage of Ford’s electric vehicles. Ford officials said that they are looking at putting some of the new jobs is Detroit and eight other cities such as Boston, MA; Chicago, Il; Cincinnati and Columbus, OH; Milwaukee, WI; Raleigh and Durham, NC; and San Jose, CA.

The Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri will also get additional workers since Ford plans to put the production of its new vehicles in the area. Currently, the plant manufactures Ford Escape but the production will be transferred to Louisville Assembly Plant once the renovation at Kansas facility is done. Ford reportedly invested over $400 million for the upgrade of its Kansas City plant, which currently employs 3,750 full-time workers.

In 2012, Ford is expected to hire 2,500 more staff for its new manufacturing jobs.