The 4,500 layoffs Jaguar Land Rover announced this week will impact the company's North American operations, the automaker said Friday.
Most of the company's layoffs will be in Britain as JLR wrestles with slumping demand for its diesel-powered vehicles in Europe, slipping sales in China -- the company's biggest market -- and Brexit uncertainty.
A JLR spokesman would not confirm the number of U.S. employees to be furloughed. JLR issued this statement Friday:
"The reduction does affect our global organization, though the largest impact will be in the U.K. as this is the location of the majority of our workforce. Details of the implementation in other countries outside the U.K. are being finalized. We can confirm there will be a position reduction in North America resulting in a modest number of employee separations."
JLR employs about 400 people in the U.S., most of them at its regional headquarters in Mahwah, N.J., about 30 miles northwest of New York City. The North American layoffs will take place by March, the company said.
JLR finished 2018 with mixed U.S. results. Land Rover delivered a record-high 92,143 vehicles, up 23 percent from a year earlier. But Jaguar slumped badly, hurt by an aging product lineup and consumers' shift from cars to light trucks. Last year, Jaguar's U.S. sales fell 23 percent from a year earlier to 30,483 vehicles.
In March, JLR opened its $30 million, 144,000-square-foot headquarters in Mahwah, which includes a showroom used for training and other purposes. Website northjersery.com reported that JLR's employment at the new headquarters totaled 360.
