Ford, reacting to U.S. pickup sales that have gained momentum for almost two years straight, said yesterday it plans to hire workers at an F-150 truck factory to boost output. The No. 2 U.S. automaker will add more than 2,000 employees at its plant in Claycomo, Missouri, for the extra pickup production and to begin building the Transit commercial van in mid-2014.

“It’s a huge vote of confidence in our truck, our sales and what’s going on in the industry overall and the economy,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, said in a telephone interview. “We wouldn’t be hiring if we didn’t think it was going to last. It is a strong indication of how we feel about our continued leadership in the segment.”

Today’s employment report also showed average hourly earnings rose 1.9 percent from a year earlier to $23.87.

The workweek shrank to 34.4 hours for all U.S. employees on average from 34.6 hours in March. Part of the reason may be reflected in an increase in part-time employment.

Full Time

The number of employees not working a full week rose to 27.5 million from 27.4 million. Some 278,000 more employees were working part-time for economic reasons.

Officials at the Fed are still looking for greater progress in reducing unemployment. The central bankers said earlier this week that they plan to maintain their $85 billion monthly pace of bond purchases to spur growth and employment prospects and are prepared to raise or lower the level of purchases as the economic outlook evolves.

“Labor market conditions have shown some improvement in recent months, on balance, but the unemployment rate remains elevated,” the Fed said in a May 1 statement. While pointing out that consumer spending, business investment and the housing recovery have advanced, the central bankers noted that “fiscal policy is restraining economic growth.”

Fiscal Policy

The monetary policy makers’ concern stems from the planned budget reductions, known as sequestration, that commenced on March 1. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cuts will trim the nation’s gross domestic product by 0.6 percentage point in 2013.