DETROIT - Chrysler plans to add up to 1,250 jobs at three Detroit-area factories as it prepares for a rise in pickup sales. The company said Thursday that it will invest $238 million at engine plants in Detroit and suburban Trenton, Michigan, and add a third shift at a pickup truck factory in nearby Warren, Michigan.
The hiring is another step in Chrysler's comeback from its 2009 government-funded bankruptcy. The company, majority-owned by Italian carmaker Fiat SpA, now has about 62,200 employees worldwide, including more than 41,000 in the U.S. It is profitable again and has hired 12,000 workers since leaving bankruptcy protection in 2009.
The new hires would boost Chrysler's total employment to 63,450.
About 1,000 of the jobs will be at the Warren plant. That factory produces a newly redesigned Ram pickup and will add the third shift in March.
Another 250 jobs could come to the Mack 1 Engine Plant in Detroit, which will be retooled to make V-6 engines instead of a large V-8 made there currently. Those jobs will be added "subject to market conditions," Chrysler said in a statement.
The Trenton plant will get additional equipment so it can make a four-cylinder engine along with the V-6 that it currently produces for the Ram and other vehicles.
Chrysler said it has invested $4.75 billion in the U.S. since June of 2009.
