Boeing to Cut 4500 Jobs due to Economic Recession

New York Jan 11 :Boeing Co became the latest US industrial giant to cut jobs on Friday, shedding 4,500 workers from its commercial plane operations, or about 7% of the unit total, as it looks to trim costs in the face of a global recession.
The world's No. 2 plane maker joins Alcoa Inc, Caterpillar Inc, Chrysler LLC, 3M Co and others in shedding jobs to counter a drop in demand.

Most of the jobs are overhead functions and not directly associated with plane manufacturing, Boeing said. The jobs will chiefly be cut from Boeing's massive Seattle-area plants, between April and June.

The commercial plane unit will employ about 63,500 workers after the reductions, it said, about the same level as at the beginning of 2008. It employed 67,659 people at the end of last year.

It booked 662 jetliner orders last year, a 53 percent drop from its industry record of 1,413 orders the year before, with airlines holding off on buying new planes as they witnessed a sharp drop-off in demand for flights.

Boeing has a record 3,714 planes in its backlog to deliver to customers -- more than six years of work at full production levels -- but industry analysts agree that many orders will be deferred and the company faces a drastic decline in new orders.