Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Hackett rebuffed a report that the company could lay off as many as 25,000 workers globally as part of a restructuring plan. Hackett spoke to reporters about the layoff estimate Tuesday night at the company's annual holiday reception in Redford, Mich. On Monday, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note that Ford is "next in line" for layoffs after General Motors Co. announced massive layoffs last week. Hackett said he didn't know where the analysts got those numbers.

"They certainly haven't come from us," he said. "Everywhere I've been in business, a plan to change employment is something you first get really thoughtfully written down, explain to everybody inside and then you go public with it. We've been doing that."

Top Ford officials have been working on an estimated $11 billion restructuringplan to make the company more fit, but it hasn't provided any layoff estimates or many details. Some have speculated that Ford could be under pressure to put out details of its plan now that GM has made a layoff announcement. Hackett said that isn't the case. The company did announce plans to move workers between facilities, including 500 workers in Louisville. Hackett added that there could be news later this week about personnel changes "at the top of the company." He wouldn't elaborate but said the news was "nothing earth shattering."

"Ford needed to have a modern culture that made teams more prominent … flatter, faster decision making, less hierarchy," he said.

Hackett was also asked whether Ford has excess capacity it could use to manufacture Volkswagen vehicles. That question came after the news that Volkswagen Group is in talks with Ford about that. Hackett wouldn't give many details there either.

"These kind of discussions have a discipline to them and a coordination. I want to honor that," he said.

He said Ford produces more vehicles in the U.S. and for the U.S. than any other manufacturer.

"I'm really proud of where we are in our utilization right now," he said.

Ford has two assembly plants in Louisville, making it one of the area's largest employers. Between the two plants, it has about 12,600 workers.

That would be more than GM's sizable downsizing effort.

Are dark times ahead for automakers? We’ve already heard about woes from Ford resulting in layoffs, but a new report fromBloomberg News suggests things could get worse, especially for Blue Oval staff overseas. Exactly how worse is pure speculation at this point, but predictions say 25,000 jobs could end up on the cutting room floor when all is said and done. Specifically, Bloomberg News points to Adam Jonas, an analyst with Morgan Stanley who issued the prediction. It’s thought that a good portion of the cuts will happen in Europe, but U.S. jobs would almost certainly be affected as well.

“We estimate a large portion of Ford’s restructuring actions will be focused on Ford Europe, a business we currently value at negative $7 billion,” said Jonas, according to Bloomberg News. “But we also expect a significant restructuring effort in North America, involving significant numbers of both salaried and hourly UAW and CAW workers.”

Additionally, the report cites a Ford spokesperson as saying the company’s salaried workforce was informed of unspecified job losses coming by the middle of 2019. Currently, Ford employs approximately 70,000 people on salary, so even if the job loss prediction is remotely close to 25,000, we’re talking about one-third of Ford’s salary staff. In its most recent sales report posted today, Ford total vehicle sales were down 6.9 percent in November compared to the same period last year. Ford's total sales for the entire year are down 2.9 percent.

This prediction comes on the heels of massive layoffs at General Motors, despite the company posting a healthy $2.5 billion profit for the third quarter of 2018. Following a round of buyouts, GM announced last week that it was cutting 15 percent of its workforce, including a 25 percent cut on executive positions. In October, Ford pointed to tariffs resulting from President Trump’s trade war as a catalyst for losing $1 billion in profit. The company is also exploring a possible partnership with Volkswagen, having signed a Memorandum of Understanding for co-developing commercial vehicles and possibly other initiatives back in October as well.

The quick rise of electric power and autonomous technology is certainly part of the drastically changing automotive landscape at the moment, and Ford has been playing catch-up in that realm for some time now. Political uncertainty could also play a part, but one thing seems certain: Detroit’s automakers are apparently preparing for some very tough times in the near future.

Or maybe GM and Ford just suck at business.