Boeing to lay off 4,500
Boeing Co. said Friday that it will lay off 4,500 workers at its Seattle-based Commercial Airplanes unit.
The division, which builds widebody planes such as the 747 in Everett and the 737 jets in Renton, will be reduced to 63,500 workers, which Boeing said was the level of employees in early 2008.
Chicago-based Boeing (NYSE: BA) said many of the layoffs will be in overhead functions not directly associated with airplane construction. Affected workers, who are mostly in Washington state, will be notified beginning in late February.
Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems unit is the second-largest employer in St. Louis with 16,000 workers.
Boeing said Thursday that the 58-day Machinists’ strike last fall hurt its total yearly delivery of commercial airplanes, with the company reporting 375 planes delivered in 2008, down from 441 a year earlier.
Washington officials expressed disappointment about the layoff announcement.
Tags: Airlines, Boeing, Layoffs, Layoffs 2009
Boeing Expects Job Cuts Totaling 10,000 in 2009
The chief executive of the Boeing Company said on Wednesday that the plane maker expected to cut a total of 10,000 jobs this year, about 6 percent of its work force.
The number includes 4,500 layoffs announced this month by Boeing’s commercial plane unit.
Boeing also reported an unexpected fourth-quarter loss Wednesday and forecast 2009 earnings well below Wall Street estimates as it grapples with a dip in demand for its planes while airlines feel the pain of recession.
Boeing’s chief executive, W. James McNerney Jr., said the cuts were necessary given the uncertainty over the country’s military budget and because the company was expecting more cancellations of plane orders.
But Boeing, which is struggling to recover from a two-month strike by its assembly workers, also was able to calm some investors, who had been braced for a worse outlook.
Boeing shares, which had fallen about 45 percent in the last 12 months, rose 2 cents, to $43.24.
Boeing sends 900 layoff notices
Boeing issued new 60-day layoff notices today to about 900 employees, about 700 of them in the Puget Sound region.
Among those given new layoff notices Friday were 458 Machinists union members. Only a small number of members in the white-collar engineering union, probably less than 20, will be affected.
In January, chief executive Jim McNerney said Boeing would cut 10,000 jobs companywide this year through attrition and layoffs. Of that total, 4,500 will come from the Commercial Airplanes unit, most of which is based here.
About 650 of those who got notices today work in the Commercial Airplanes unit.
Boeing also has let go hundreds of contract employees. And within the commercial airplane unit, about 1,000 of the year’s job cuts will come through not filling positions left open at the beginning of the year.
This is the third monthly wave of layoff notices, bringing the total so far this year to about 2,700 companywide, including 1,400 in the Commercial Airplanes unit.