Boeing reported 2,199 layoffs in Washington state as it began implementing a companywide plan to eliminate about 17,000 jobs, roughly 10% of its workforce. The reductions were expected to span Boeing's commercial-airplane, defense and global-services divisions and affect sites across several US states.
The Washington figure appeared in a notice filed with the state's Employment Security Department. Before the notices, Boeing employed about 66,000 people in Washington. More than 400 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace received notices but were expected to remain on the payroll until mid-January. Another 50 cuts were planned in Portland, Oregon, according to Assembly Magazine.
Boeing had announced the broader reduction in October while confronting a combination of financial, regulatory and manufacturing problems. A machinists' strike lasting nearly two months had strained cash flow and halted assembly lines. Unionized machinists began returning to work earlier in November after the stoppage ended.
Chief executive Kelly Ortberg said on an October call with analysts that the strike itself was not the reason for the layoffs. He attributed the cuts to overstaffing, even as the work stoppage formed part of the difficult financial setting in which the decision was being carried out.
The company's problems predated the labor dispute. Two crashes of Boeing 737 Max aircraft in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people and damaged the manufacturer's finances and reputation. In January 2024, a panel separated from the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines aircraft, bringing renewed scrutiny. The Federal Aviation Administration capped 737 Max production at 38 aircraft a month, a level Boeing had not yet reached when the strike stopped work.
The job notices indicated that the reductions were geographically and organizationally broad. Reports identified affected operations in Washington, Missouri, Arizona and South Carolina, rather than a single factory or business line. Boeing is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.
The 17,000 figure was a planned total, not the number of people dismissed on November 19. Likewise, a separate headline referring to nearly 20,000 employees did not change the specific companywide total reported in the underlying account. The documented action at that point was the first large group of notices, led by 2,199 in Washington, within an announced reduction expected to unfold over the coming months.
Boeing's recovery would depend on restoring production, satisfying regulators and stabilizing its finances after the strike. For employees, however, the restructuring had already moved from a corporate target to individual notices across multiple divisions and locations.
