Ford Hires 5,200 While Pushing Factory Use to 114% of Capacity

Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, has added about 5,200 jobs this year in its U.S. factories, and its North American plants are operating at 114 percent of capacity, the highest in more than three decades.

“Our manufacturing costs have gone down this year,” Jim Tetreault, Ford’s vice president of North American manufacturing, told reporters today at a factory in Wayne, Michigan. “Two things are driving that, capacity utilization and entry-level workers. No question, those two things have lowered our costs.”