Heavy equipment and diesel engine maker Caterpillar Inc. said Monday it has begun rehiring some laid-off workers and will offer others separation packages.
About 550 of its U.S. employees have returned or will return to work before year-end, including support, management and production employees, Caterpillar said in a statement.
It also began telling about 2,500 U.S. idled workers they will not get their jobs back and will be offered a separation package, Bloomberg reported.
“We are pleased that signs of recovery in the global economy allow us to return a selected group of laid off employees to work,” Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens said.
“But it’s important to remember that we are not close to the record-breaking demand we experienced from 2004 through 2008,” he said in the statement.
Caterpillar cut close to 20,000 full-time jobs and about the same amount of temporary workers since December 2008 as demand declined, Bloomberg reported. (Click here for previous coverage.)
Caterpillar said last year that it plans to pull out of the North American Class 8 truck engine market by 2010, except for a truck and engine in partnership with Navistar International Corp.
Last month, the two announced plans for a global truck and engine partnership to be called NC2 Global LLC.
