BUSINESS BRIEFING / AUTOMOTIVE

White-collar job cuts at General Motors Corp. started as the wounded automaker began to deliver on promises to the government to shrink its workforce so it could be profitable at lower sales levels.

GM told 160 people at its manufacturing engineering operations in Warren, Mich., that they would be laid off as of April 1. It’s the beginning of 3,400 salaried layoffs in the U.S. and part of the 47,000 job cuts that GM wants to accomplish worldwide by the end of the year.