Ford has confirmed that it plans to cut 1,400 salaried jobs in North America and Asia, significantly less than the 20,000 jobs that were initially believed to be on the line.

The BBC reports that the automaker will offer financial incentives and voluntary retirement to about 15,000 salaried workers as it looks to slash costs on the back of declining profits and shrinking sales.

Ford hopes that its incentives will encourage some employees to depart voluntarily by the end of September, company spokesman Mike Moran said.

“Reducing costs and becoming as lean and efficient as possible also remain part of that work,” he said.

The company will provide workers with more details about the cuts in June as it aims to recover from share prices which have fallen by more than 15 per cent in the past 12 months.

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