General Motors could cut as much as 28% from its 38,000 US workers, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing “industry officials and analysts”.

The cuts are seen as the beginning of GM's effort to restructure structural problems in its core auto business after several years of avoiding large job cuts, the newspaper reported.

GM spokeswoman Toni Simonetti said the company planned to continue reducing its work force through early-retirement offers and ‘natural attrition’.

“There's no broad-based reduction. These are targeted reductions in areas of the business where we have determined there is a need for reductions. It's going to be determined department by department, function by function, as we look at the resources we're deploying and the resources we need,” says Simonetti.