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SCOTT JAGOW: Automaker Ford lost $1.4 billion the first half of this year. Part of that is the cost of restructuring the company. Today a moment of truth for that plan. Workers have until midnight to take a buyout. Alisa Roth reports.

ALISA ROTH: Ford’s offering a choice of buyouts to all 75,000 of its hourly workers in the U.S. The company’s hoping that nearly half will take the offer by the end of the day.

It’s also offering buyouts to salaried workers, though they have a few more weeks to decide.

Ford’s not saying how many workers have signed up so far, nor how much the buyouts will end up costing the company.

Argus Research analyst Kevin Tynan says it’s a tough choice for the workers.

KEVIN TYNAN: Do I take this and really give up almost everything I’ve known up until now and start completely new? Or do I hold on and hope that the company management has enough to turn this thing around and I have a job and pension and health care benefits for the rest of my life?

Tynan guesses only about 30 percent of Ford’s factory workers will take the gamble and that won’t be enough to solve Ford’s financial problems.

But even if Ford reaches its target for the buyouts, Tynan says the company won’t be in the clear until it starts building better cars.

In New York, I’m Alisa Roth for Marketplace.