Boeing Co., after two years of struggling to hire and train enough workers to meet surging demand, said it expects to cut employment at its commercial airline unit by 12,000 jobs, or 10 percent, next year.
The world’s largest aerospace company said that jetliner production will peak in mid-1998 and improved technology, such as computer links to suppliers, will allow it to eliminate jobs without reducing the number of aircraft it makes. Most of the job cuts will come through attrition, Boeing said.
Boeing this year has hired 17,000 workers to ease assembly-line bottlenecks that forced it temporarily to halt production of some jetliners in October. The production problems, which resulted in a $1 billion third-quarter charge, are beginning to ebb as assembly line glitches are worked out and more workers are trained.
“They had been on a (hiring) rampage. They’ve reached the optimum point,” said Glenn Stewart, an analyst with A.G. Edwards who has a “buy” rating on Boeing.
