Boeing to shed 10,000 jobs
Top executives at Boeing Co. said Wednesday that the aerospace giant will shed 10,000 jobs this year in its commercial aircraft and defense businesses after reporting a fourth-quarter loss.
Boeing officials said that while the company’s St. Louis-based Integrated Defense Systems won’t be immune to job losses, the effect is expected to be minimal locally. No specific numbers were available.
Boeing, with headquarters in Hazelwood and production facilities in the St. Louis region, is the area’s second-largest employer with 16,000 workers.
Boeing announced a $56 million fourth-quarter loss on Wednesday, or 8 cents a share. By contrast, the company posted a profit of $1.03 billion during the same period last year.
It also reported revenue of $12.7 billion during that quarter, down 27 percent from $17.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Describing 2008 as a challenging year, Boeing President and CEO Jim McNerney said the company was hit by a machinists’ strike, delays in key aircraft development programs and the swirling financial crisis.
"Fundamentally, this is a solid company with a strong growing core business," McNerney said Wednesday. "We are, of course, like all businesses today facing a very challenging business environment."
While the weakening global economy batters demand for air travel and financing, McNerney said, the company also expects "pressure on defense budgets" to mount around the world.
Boeing, he said, will seek to manage its costs through:
•reduced capital spending,
•elimination of unnecessary work,
•review of staffing levels payday loan online.
That will mean reducing positions through attrition, retirements and layoffs in certain areas of the company, including defense work, Boeing officials said. The company also will reduce the number of contract workers.
The 10,000 positions targeted for elimination this year include the 4,500 announced earlier this month in Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes business unit.
Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher in Chicago said company officials are reviewing their operating costs to determine how they will meet their business plans. Employees who face layoffs would first receive 60-day notices and will receive career transition services.
Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems reported sales of $8 billion during the fourth quarter of 2008 versus $8.4 billion the same period in 2007. James Bell, Boeing’s corporate president and chief financial officer, said the defense unit continued to capture new business with sales of the P-8I reconnaissance aircraft to India and C-17 cargo jets to a NATO consortium.
Boeing spokesman Derrell Carter said that if there is an impact on staffing reductions in St. Louis, "it will be minimal."
Gordon King, president of the International Association of Machinists District 837, said Boeing is still hiring production workers in St. Louis. The union represents about 3,000 workers at Boeing’s St. Louis-area facilities.
"We haven’t heard anything," King said. "We’re in a hiring mode here."
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