"Ford To Hire 2,200 White Collar Workers In U.S."

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with new jobs at Ford.

Ford announced today, that it plans to hire more than 2,200 white collar workers here in the U.S. The jobs will center around product development, manufacturing and IT. This continues an upswing in hiring at Ford. It added over 8,000 U.S. jobs last year. And yesterday, the automaker doubled its quarterly dividend to the highest level in seven years.