Boeing announced on Monday that it has already laid off 2,199 workers in Washington state as part of a larger plan to reduce its workforce by approximately 17,000 employees company-wide. The aerospace company revealed in October that it intended to cut around 10% of its global workforce due to ongoing financial challenges, regulatory issues, and the aftermath of a nearly two-month strike by its machinists.
The layoffs will affect workers across various Boeing locations in the U.S., including Washington, Missouri, Arizona, and South Carolina, and are expected to impact employees in all three of the company’s main divisions: commercial airplanes, defense, and global services. Before the layoffs, Boeing employed 66,000 people in Washington state.
Among the layoffs already implemented, over 400 members of Boeing’s professional aerospace labor union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), received notice last week. These workers will remain on the payroll until mid-January.
Boeing’s unionized machinists returned to work earlier this month after a strike that had put a strain on the company’s finances. However, CEO Kelly Ortberg clarified during an October call with analysts that the layoffs were not caused by the strike, but rather by the company’s overstaffing.
Boeing, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, has faced significant financial challenges since two fatal crashes involving its 737 Max jetliner in 2018 and 2019, which claimed 346 lives. The company’s financial situation and public image were further damaged when a fuselage panel detached from an Alaska Airlines plane in January.
As a result, production slowed dramatically, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a cap on 737 Max production, limiting it to 38 planes per month—a level Boeing had not yet reached when the machinists’ strike forced assembly lines to halt.