Boeing to lay off 561 employees in Southern California

An Air Force C-17 in final assembly at Boeing in Long Beach.

 (Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times)

 

Boeing Co. plans to lay off 561 employees in Southern California this month and early next year, according to documents the company filed in Sacramento.

 

The layoffs include 253 people at its Long Beach facilities, 154 in Huntington Beach and another 154 employees in El Segundo.

 

The company has previously announced it is closing its factory in Long Beach where it builds the C-17 cargo plane for the Air Force.

 

It was not clear how many of the latest employee cuts were related to the ongoing workforce reductions at the Long Beach factory that will stop production next year and how many are related to other aerospace work being transferred out of California to other states.

 

In October, a Boeing spokeswoman confirmed that the company was moving some employees who work on the secret space drone known at the X-37B to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The robotic plane was developed by engineers at the company's Phantom Works research facility in Huntington Beach.

 

The Los Angeles Business Journal reported online Tuesday that the company had filed documents showing it planned to eliminate 360 jobs this month.

 

In addition, Boeing has recently filed more notices, according to the state's Employment Development Department, detailing that an additional 201 employees will be laid off in January and February.

 

Stephen Davis, a spokesman for Boeing, said employees had been notified of the job cuts in October and November. He said the company was providing "a variety of career transition services" to assist the workers.

 

"Boeing carefully links its employment levels to business requirements," Davis said. "These employee layoffs are being driven by the difficult business and economic conditions that all companies have been experiencing.

 

"The layoffs come as Boeing continues to struggle to rein in the production costs of its 787 Dreamliner. In October, Boeing reported that its third-quarter revenues were up 7%, driven by strong performance across its businesses.

 

In April, Boeing told The Times that it had 18,460 employees in California. That is down significantly from 10 years ago when the company was the largest private employer in Southern California.

 

(Melody Petersen  - Los Angeles Times)