Ford Motor Co, the world's third- largest automaker, plans to cut as much as 12 percent of its salaried work force in the United States due to the surging fuel and materials prices, the Detroit News reported on Wednesday.

Last week, Ford announced that the troubled US economy was one of the main causes for which it could not meet its plan to return to profitability in 2009, along with a permanent shift in the demand, which is now mainly toward cars and crossovers and went away from large trucks and SUVs.

The crisis of the US economy and the housing slump led to a smaller confidence from customers to consume, which is evidently ruining Ford’s turnaround plan.

The car maker is forced to make the involuntary job reductions in order to keep its restructuring plan on track, the newspaper said.

A memo released last week announced Ford employees that the company is expecting to lay off some hourly and salaried employees by August 1 and said that it would detail the move in July.

However, the Detroit News reported that the automaker is still trying to find a way out of this situation, while the job cuts figures are just estimates because the company did not yet formulated a plan for them. In addition, Ford is taking into consideration changes to the merit increases that it usually gives salaried workers in July.

Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said that Ford does not want to comment on the matter due to the fact that it did not make a final decision regarding the involuntary job reductions.

According to the Detroit News, Ford Motor has around 24.300 white- collar workers throughout North America.