GM adding 700 workers at SUV plant in Tennessee

General Motors will add 700 workers at a Tennessee plant that builds Cadillac and GMC SUVs, another sign of consumers’ growing interest in larger vehicles.

The move to add a third shift at the Spring Hill, Tennessee, factory comes less than two weeks after GM informed employees at a plant in Ohio that operations would be cut from two shifts to one, affecting as many as 1,500 people who work on the Chevrolet Cruze. GM cited slow sales of passenger cars.

Employees who were furloughed in Ohio or previously laid off in Tennessee could fill at least some of the 700 open positions at the SUV plant, according to the Associated Press. GM will start the third shift in September.

GM currently employs about 2,600 hourly workers in Spring Hill, where the automaker assembles the GMC Acadia and Cadillac XT5.

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Unlike passenger cars, SUVs are enjoying strong demand in the U.S.

Sales of light trucks, including SUVs, pickups and vans, grew 9.8% in the first quarter from the same period last year. Passenger cars fell 10.8%. At GM, Acadia sales grew 2.7%, and the XT5 recorded a 10% increase.

GM is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings on Thursday.