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Detroit's biggest automakers are cutting their white-collar workforces at a pace not seen in decades. And experts warn the worst may still be ahead.
General Motors, Ford and Stellantis have together eliminated more than 20,000 U.S. salaried positions from their recent employment peaks this decade, a reduction of 19% across their combined workforces — according to public filings and company employment data.
The reasons differ by automaker, but a common thread runs through all of them: technology is changing what these companies need from their people.
"Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.," Ford CEO Jim Farley warned at the Aspen Ideas Festival last July. "AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind."
GM has been the most aggressive. The Detroit giant shed roughly 11,000 U.S. salaried roles between 2022 and last year, following a hiring surge that had expanded its white-collar headcount from 48,000 in 2020 to 58,000 just two years later. Ford trimmed approximately 5,300 salaried positions from its 2020 peak, while Stellantis reduced its ranks from 15,000 to around 11,000 over the same period.
This week, GM deepened its cuts further, laying off between 500 and 600 salaried workers globally, predominantly in IT operations across Texas and Michigan, in reductions sources told CNBC were partly tied to the company's shifting needs around AI.
The tension at the heart of the story is hard to miss. Even as GM hands out pink slips, it is actively recruiting for more than 250 AI-focused roles. A laid-off veteran programmer captured the contradiction plainly. "AI isn't going to do you any good if you don't know the business," the employee said.
GM CEO Mary Barra offered her own candid take on the turnover in January. "Sometimes the people who got you to point A aren't necessarily the people who are going to get you to point B," she said.
Not every automaker is shrinking. Toyota grew its American white-collar workforce by 31% between 2020 and 2025, reaching approximately 47,500 employees.
