Ford says it plans to add more than 11,000 workers to its payrolls next year. <br /><br />Five thousand of the jobs will be in the United States and 3,300 of those will be white-collar positions <br /><br />Ford will also hire more than 6,000 people in Asia where it is due to open two plants in China in 2014.<br /><br />The beefed up workforce come as the second-largest US automaker is set to roll out 23 new vehicles worldwide, the biggest launch year in its history. <br /><br />They include an all-new Mustang sports car and a radical overhaul of its most profitable vehicle, the F-150 pickup truck. <br /><br />“We have an unprecedented year of launches,” Joe Hinrichs, head of Ford’s operations in North and South America, said at a media event in Dearborn, Michigan. “We’ve always said we’re going to keep investing in product and with the number of launches we have next year, this reinforces that.<br /><br />Ford said that, worldwide, it is on track to make six million cars and trucks next year.
