Stephen Brashear
Boeing (New York Stock Exchange: BA) plans to hire 10,000 workers around the world this year as the planemaker ramps up plane production and bolsters its engineering teams. Along with this hire, it will eliminate some support jobs.
Hiring this year will be to have “a focus within our business units and on engineering and manufacturing as we look to further stabilize our operations, increase production and invest in innovation,” a Boeing spokesperson said by email.
The company hired about 23,000 new employees in 2022. With the usual severance pay and retirements, its workforce expanded by about 14,000 workers to 156,000 at the end of December from about 142,000 a year earlier, according to a regulatory filing. Boeing (BA) has around 136,000 workers in the U.S.
Boeing’s workforce numbered about 161,000 people at the end of 2019, before pandemic lockdowns triggered a sharp drop in air travel.
“Hiring is no longer a constraint,” Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s CEO, said this week on a regularly scheduled conference call with analysts. “People can hire the people they need. It’s about training and ultimately preparing them to do the sophisticated work that we demand.”
In its quarterly earnings report, Boeing (BA) this week highlighted plans to increase deliveries of the best-selling 737 Max jet from 374 last year to 400 to 450 planes this year. It also aims to deliver 70 to 80 of its 787 Dreamliner widebody jet.
Rival aircraft maker Airbus (OTCPK:EADSY) this week I said will expand its workforce by 13,000 employees this year. Around 7,000 of the jobs are new positions, while 9,000 of the new hires will be in Europe, where the company is based.
