Ford Credit Cutting 2,000 Jobs, Shuttering Offices

Ford Motor Credit announced yesterday that it will eliminate approximately 2,000 salaried, white-collar positions across the U.S. and Canada and will consolidate its 59 offices into six.

Ford Credit spokeswoman Chris Solie told Bloomberg that the ?jobs will be cut through attrition, early retirements, incentives and firings.?

Ford Motor Credit is one of the few profitable units within the Ford family. In the second quarter, the finance arm earned a profit of $441 million, although the figure was down significantly from the $740 million earned in the second quarter of 2005.

The finance unit, which counts 8,600 employees in the U.S. and Canada, has already closed 110 branches since 2003. Yesterday?s announcement is the latest in a brutal series of cuts made in the Ford workforce. Earlier in the year, Ford Motor Company announced it would be cutting 10,000 other white-collar jobs in addition to 30,000 blue-collar positions, mainly in manufacturing and assembly.