Boeing To Cut 536 Jobs From California Following Several Years Of Major Incidents, Losses

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing announced major cuts in both Washington state and California on Monday, with California reportedly to lose 536 jobs in total, as the company continues to recover from years of financial  and engineering issues, as well as more recent strikes.

Recent lost jobs in California have come from every sector and position tier, ranging from high-paying tech executives to entry-level fast food workers. Like all other sectors, the aerospace industry has seen some layoffs in California, but with nothing amounting to hundreds of workers let go at once. For months, Boeing has planned to lay off around 17,000 employees in total, or around 10% of their  total workforce. Last month, job cuts started with California largely avoiding the first round of layoffs. Washington state was affected most by the cuts, with Southern states like Florida and Alabama also seeing hundreds of jobs lost. However, the company also began to file WARN notices with the Employment Development Department several weeks ago, hinting of major cuts coming to California. This led to Monday’s announcement.

In total, 536 employees are to be let go, with most being in the aerospace hub of Southern California. 144 workers in El Segundo, 115 in Long Beach,  57 in Huntington Beach, and 179 in Seal Beach are to be let go. The remaining losses are to come from facilities in  San Diego County, Kern County, Ventura County, Alameda County, and Santa Clara County. Like all other major job losses in California, losses range wildly by job tier, with cuts coming from support staff all the way to engineers.

“As announced in early October, we are adjusting our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and a more focused set of priorities,” said Boeing on Monday.

CEO Kelly Ortberg later clarified that the layoffs did not result from the recent strikes, but from overstaffing from the pandemic years. However, aviation experts told the Globe on Monday that the cuts have been because of many reasons, with California’s high costs, surprisingly, not being one of them.

“Oh yeah, Boeing wouldn’t be doing this unless they have had financial issues for sure,” explained aviation consultant Randy Williams to the Globe on Monday. “Honestly, Boeing has been falling ever since they moved their headquarters from Seattle in 2001. They had executives away from engineers so quality dipped. Then 9/11 happened. And since then it has been incident after incident.

“More recently, it was the MAX crashes, the recent door fuselage incident, all the financial woes, another headquarters move to Virginia which was an amazingly idiotic idea, and yeah, the strikes. L.A. has always been an aerospace hub since around WWII, and Boeing has been a major presence here. But all those issues have made airlines flee to Airbus, and Boeing not learn from mistakes.

“Now they are working together what they can. They have new leadership who is looking to refocus on Seattle where engineering is which is a positive first step, but it also means shedding a lot of jobs. That means California will be affected.

“California’s high cost of living, the high prices here, all that. Believe it or not, it isn’t a major factor. They actually love having so many West Coast facilities – look how many cuts were in the East recently. But when you need to cuts over ten thousand jobs, those losses will come from everywhere, and that includes California. And, sadly, Boeing isn’t done yet, so we may see even more losses in California too.”

More Boeing cuts are expected to be announced soon.