The added jobs amount to just a fraction of the 40,000 that carmakers shed during their tailspin last year. But it is a sign that the big manufacturers expect business to improve this year.
Significantly, several automakers are making big investments in their lines of trucks as they anticipate that an improved outlook for housing and construction will encourage contractors and tradesmen to buy new vehicles.
Volkswagen of America is hiring 2,000 people as it gets ready to build a new sedan in Chattanooga.
Toyota Motor North America plans to add a second shift to its truck factory in San Antonio, a move that requires an additional 850 employees, and it could add several hundred more workers at other factories as it ramps up production from the depressed levels of last year.
South Korean manufacturer Kia Motors is recruiting at least 1,200 workers to assemble the newest generation of its Sorrento crossover vehicle at its factory in West Point, Ga.
Looking ahead, Ford Motor Co. said it expected to hire about 1,000 workers starting in late 2011 at a factory in Wayne, Mich., where it will build a next-generation hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicle.
Chrysler Group has added about 400 designers and engineers, at least on a temporary basis, as it starts to rebuild a segment of its work force that Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said was decimated by layoffs last year.
Although it has not announced a resumption in hiring, General Motors Co. plans to put $1 billion into developing new versions of its full-size pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado and the GMC Sierra, a vote of confidence in the idea that construction and housing starts are about to rebound.
"Pickup sales are unbelievably correlated with housing starts," said Mike DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis.
Sales of full-size pickups jumped to 13 percent of the vehicle market in December, more than a full percentage point higher than its share for all of 2009, DiGiovanni said.
(2 of 2)Millions in VW work approved for Chattanooga plantUncertainty in Housing Continues as Affordability Hits Record-High Yet Starts Decline
