Boeing to Slash 5% of Commercial Airplane Workforce as Production Slowdown Bites
The planemaker is combining layoffs with attrition after a sluggish production ramp left its Commercial Airplanes division overstaffed, with notices set to begin in December.
Boeing is cutting about 5% of the workforce in its Commercial Airplanes division, the unit's leader told staff this week, as the company slows its production ramp on the 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner programs.
Stephanie Pope, who runs the Commercial Airplanes business, told employees in an internal email that the company is adjusting production schedules and reducing aircraft output in ways that leave the division carrying more staff than it needs. The reductions will combine layoffs with attrition, and notifications to affected workers are expected to begin in December, according to reporting that first surfaced in The Seattle Times and was later confirmed by Reuters.
Boeing has not released an exact headcount for the cuts. Outside estimates, based on the division's roughly 50,494 employees as of December 2025, put the reduction at somewhere around 2,500 jobs — though that figure is a calculation by outside analysts, not a company-issued number.
Slower Planes, Slower Recovery
The cuts track with a broader pullback in production targets. Boeing said it will not raise monthly production of the 737 MAX until mid-2027, and it is also slowing the planned ramp-up of 787 Dreamliner output — both programs central to the company's effort to recover from years of manufacturing and safety setbacks.
The financial picture underscores the pressure. Commercial Airplanes revenue fell 3% year-over-year in the third quarter to $10.72 billion, and the division posted an operating loss of $697 million for the period.
ADJUSTING OUR PRODUCTION SCHEDULES AND REDUCING AIRCRAFT OUTPUT HAS LEFT US WITH MORE EMPLOYEES THAN WE NEED.
Investors took notice. Boeing shares briefly dropped to $168.89, nearly 3% below the previous closing price, after news of the cuts broke.
The move adds Boeing to a growing list of major employers trimming payrolls this fall even as broader markets hold up, following similar cuts in recent days at PepsiCo and other large companies grappling with their own cost pressures. For Boeing specifically, the timeline suggests the company sees its production recovery as a multi-year project rather than something that resolves by next spring — a sobering signal for suppliers and airline customers waiting on delayed jets.