GM Sending Layoffs Notices to 1,600

General Motors announced a nationwide staff reduction of 1,600 salaried positions today.

Most of the layoffs will take effect this week, with the rest finished by May 1st.

The layoffs are part of GM’s plan to shutter 14 of its 47 US plants by 2012, and cut 20,000 jobs. Thirty-four hundred will be US-based.

Earlier this month, 7,000 GM union workers agreed to special attrition packages.

The federal government has loaned the company $13.4 billion to date.