EVERETT — The Boeing Co. employs 921 fewer workers in Washington state than it did at the beginning of the year, according to the company’s Web site.
But that number likely will more than double by the end of April with workers who received layoff notices in February leaving the company this month.
In response to the global recession, Boeing announced plans in January to cut 10,000 positions companywide by the end of 2009. The company began doling out 60-day notices in January, with about 190 Shared Services workers receiving pink slips. Boeing’s newly updated employment numbers, released Wednesday, show that eliminated contractors and unfilled positions account for roughly 698 jobs lost in the company’s commercial airplanes division.
The aerospace giant intends to slash 4,500 commercial airplanes jobs in the Puget Sound region over the next few months and has handed out layoff notices to 1,400 workers in the division since late February. Boeing Machinists received 466 notices in February and another 388 in March.
The company’s Shared Services Group also has been hit hard by the layoffs, losing 455 jobs over the past three months. About 190 of those workers received notices in January. Their last day at the company was March 20.
Not every worker who receives a layoff notice will lose his or her job, the company contends.
Some divisions in the company, including its corporate offices, have continued to add workers over the first three months of 2009. Boeing’s engineering, operations and technology group added 51 workers through the end of March. However, more than 400 Puget Sound area workers in that division received notices in early February and could be out of work early this month.
Boeing has shed 1,259 workers total since Dec. 31, 2008.
Washington state has the largest concentration of Boeing workers in the nation with 75,496 employees at the end of March. That’s down from 76,417 at the end of 2008. The company’s employment in Washington peaked in October 2008 with 76,869 employees, including roughly 24,000 Machinists who were on strike then.
Both passenger and cargo air traffic have continued to decline for several months, forcing airlines to defer jet deliveries or cancel orders altogether. Boeing hasn’t announced a decision to slow jet production rates. But industry observers predict both Boeing and its rival Airbus will need to cut aircraft production by 10 to 35 percent.
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