BELVIDERE — The Belvidere Assembly Plant will lay off as many as 1,371 employees indefinitely starting May 2, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said Tuesday, but local economic development officials say workers should be able to find other jobs.

The company said a slowing global market is causing the reduction.

Starting May 6, the plant will return to a more traditional work schedule, with employees working two shifts. Now, three crews work 10-hour days four days a week.

The company "will make every effort to place indefinitely laid-off hourly employees in open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority," spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said.

The plant is among the region's largest employers. In June, it employed 5,430 people. The plant assembles Jeep Cherokees. Models include the Latitude, Latitude Plus, Limited, Trailhawk and Overland.

Assembly of the Cherokee started in Belvidere in June 2017, having moved from Toledo, Ohio.

"This is certainly a disappointment," Belvidere Mayor Mike Chamberlain said. In 2016, 4,400 jobs were created in Belvidere, and 3,000 of those jobs "had to do with Chrysler and suppliers. So, if we're losing 1,300 ... it's never a good thing."

The layoff has the potential to ripple to other employers, but it's unclear how it will affect jobs at the plant's largest suppliers such as Magna and Yanfeng Automotive Interiors. Growth Dimensions, which works to create jobs and grow the economy in the Belvidere and Boone County region, has reached out to those suppliers as well as to FCA as it looks to help keep as much of the area's workforce employed as possible after the layoffs. Growth Dimensions has asked FCA to identify where those who will be laid off live so they can try to connect them with new jobs.

The plant employs people from across the region, and most of its workers live outside Belvidere, Chamberlain said.

"We will try to identify with what their skill sets are to connect them with those opportunities that are best suited for them within the region," said Pamela Lopez-Fettes, executive director of Growth Dimensions. "We will work closely with our workforce professionals at the Workforce Connection to help make that transition."

Nathan Bryant, president and CEO of the Rockford Area Economic Development Council, said he expects the employees who are laid off will "certainly be able to go to work in other segments of the market. We have a ton of growing companies in need of high-quality talent."

The Associated Press said Tuesday that FCA had announced a $4.5 billion investment plan it said would increase its workforce in Detroit and the surrounding suburbs by about 6,500 jobs to build all-new or next-generation SUVs.

Under the plan, the company said it would reopen a shuttered engine plant in the city and convert another in the same complex into a future assembly plant for the Jeep Grand Cherokee and a new, three-row, full-size Jeep SUV and plug-in hybrid models for all.

Kevin Haas contributed to this story.

Georgette Braun: 815-987-1331; gbraun@rrstar.com; @GeorgetteBraun