DETROIT (AP) — Ford is adding 2,000 workers at a Kansas City-area plant to keep up with surging demand for pickup trucks. The company said Thursday it will add another shift with 900 workers in the third quarter of this year. That's on top of 1,100 workers it's adding in the fourth quarter to build its new Transit van. The plant, which is just outside Kansas City in Claycomo, already has 2,450 workers on two shifts. Ford's pickup sales are up 19 percent this year as home builders and other construction workers replace trucks they held onto during the recession. The F-Series is the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., with more than 228,000 sold through April. Ford Motor Company plans to bring back 1,000 laid-off workers and hire 1,000 new ones. Meanwhile, Missouri's governor hailed the news as another step in the rebirth of the American auto industry. Governor Jay Nixon says the company's October 2011 announcement that it would spend $1.1 billion to expand the plant helped jump start the state's economy, and Thursday's announcement was proof that his efforts to revitalize the state's auto manufacturing industry were gaining steam.