美国通用汽车本周二宣布，今年将在全球范围内裁员近1万名，占到其员工总数的14%，另外还将对大部分剩余工作岗位进行减薪。去年12月份，通用获得美国政府134亿美元的救助贷款，此次裁员减薪计划是为了在得到救助贷款后的机构重组中尽量降低成本。通用表示，在美国的29500名白领员工中将有3400名被裁掉，主要裁员将从5月1日开始，剩下的大部分职员今年将面临3%－10%的减薪。

General Motors Corp (GM.N) will slash¹ its global salaried work force by about 10,000, or 14 percent, this year and impose pay cuts on most remaining white-collar U.S. workers as it scrambles² to reduce costs under a restructuring mandated³ by its U.S. government bailout.

GM, which was granted $13.4 billion of government loans in December, said on Tuesday it would cut its salaried work force to about 63,000 from 73,000 during 2009.

In the struggling automaker's home market, about 3,400 of 29,500 white-collar jobs will be cut. At the start of the decade, GM had 44,000 salaried employees in the United States, the majority of them in southeast Michigan.

Most jobs will be cut by May 1, and most remaining U.S. staff will see pay cuts of between 3 percent and 10 percent for the year, GM said.

The job and pay cuts come in addition to buyout offers for GM's union workers and represent the latest step by the automaker to pare its operations ahead of a deadline to present a restructuring plan to the U.S. government on February 17.

The moves also add to a growing toll⁵ from the downturn for U.S. automakers that began in 2005 and drove both GM and Chrysler LLC to the brink⁶ of failure in 2008 as the recession deepened.

Chrysler LLC (CBS.UL), which also received $4 billion in government loans and is seeking an additional $3 billion, is currently offering buyouts to its U.S. hourly work force after cutting more than 8,000 salaried jobs in 2008.

"These difficult actions are necessitated⁷ by a severe drop in vehicle sales worldwide and by the need to restructure GM for long-term viability," GM said in a statement.

GM's sales in January plunged⁸ 49 percent and the automaker has said it expects industrywide U.S. sales to be near 10.5 million vehicles in 2009, extending a four-year slump⁹ that has taken the market to the lowest levels since the early 1980s.

As a result, GM executives have said the company is looking for deeper and faster cost-cutting under the restructuring plan that will be submitted to the U.S. Treasury¹⁰ under terms of its $13.4-billion bailout.

GM has offered buyouts to its 62,000 U.S. workers represented by the United Auto⁴ Workers union. The automaker remains¹¹ in talks with both the UAW and bondholders in an attempt to slash its outstanding debt.

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said the cuts would not be made across the board, but would be based on specific staffing needs for each department in response to changing consumer demand.

For example, GM may still need to hire more engineers for its next-generation battery business as the company pushes for the development of plug-in electric vehicles, Wilkinson said.

He added that some countries may take deeper cuts depending on sales trends in those markets.

GM said U.S. executive pay would be cut 10 percent for the rest of 2009. Other salaried U.S. workers will face pay cuts of between 3 percent and 7 percent, it said.

GM also said it would review the pay and benefits its workers outside the United States receive.

In Germany, GM's Opel unit is not planning any job cuts despite the push to cut costs, a union official said. Opel's works council chief Klaus Franz told Reuters in Frankfurt that job cuts are currently not on the agenda at Opel.

Salaried workers in the United States whose jobs are eliminated will be eligible¹² for severance¹³ pay and some benefit assistance, GM said.

GM had suspended some benefits for salaried workers in November and said then that it would aim to cut 30 percent of its white-collar payroll¹⁴ costs in North America.

But the slump in global auto sales has deepened in the three months since and increased the pressure on GM to slash costs and conserve¹⁵ cash to avoid bankruptcy¹⁶.

GM, Ford¹⁷ Motor Co (F.N) and Chrysler have shed about 140,000 jobs since 2005 and almost half of their workforce¹⁸ since the start of the decade.

The job cuts have been especially damaging in Michigan, home to the headquarter operations for all three automakers. The state's unemployment rate hit 10.6 percent in December, the highest rate in the nation.

GM's shares were off about 5 cents, or 1.7 percent, at $2.78 at midday on the New York Stock Exchange.