Ford is set to higher as many as 7,000 new hourly and salaried employees as the company builds on its success over the past couple of years.

Mark Fields, Ford president of The Americas, said this year alone Ford is adding nearly 4,000 hourly jobs at several of its U.S. plants, including 1,800 at Louisville Assembly Plant, which is preparing to launch the next-generation Ford Escape late in the year. Next year, Ford expects to add at least 2,500 more new manufacturing positions in Southeast Michigan and at other Ford manufacturing sites.

 Ford also will add 750 salaried engineering jobs in product development and manufacturing, Fields said.

"Ford is committed to American manufacturing, and we are on a path to add more than 7,000 American workers over the next two years as we continue to grow our product lineup," said Mark Fields, Ford president of The Americas. "Working with our partners, including the UAW, Ford is finding competitive ways to engineer and build even more high-quality, fuel-efficient vehicles with technologies American consumers really want,." Fields said.

 Ford is recruiting salaried engineers specializing in batteries, system controls, software and energy storage to work on electric vehicles in Southeast, Mi. and eight other cities including Boston; Chicago; Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Milwaukee; Raleigh and Durham, N.C. and San Jose, Calif.

 This recruitment launches at the 2011 North American International Auto Show during industry preview days on Jan. 12 and Jan. 13.

 Both General Motors Corp. and Chrysler are also planning to hire more engineers. Chrysler is looking for roughly 1,000 new engineers and GM chairman Dan Akerson said last month the automaker also plans to hire roughly 1,000 engineers over the next two years, primarily to hire electric and hybrid vehicles.