Boeing Says It Plans to Cut 6,500 Jobs : Aerospace: The work force reduction in Washington state is the company’s biggest in a decade.

Suffering from both defense cutbacks and the commercial airline slump, Boeing Co. announced Wednesday that it will reduce its Washington state work force by 6,500 this year through attrition and layoffs.

The reduction is a little more than 6% of its huge payroll in the state, but--as Boeing’s largest work force reduction in a decade--it was enough to set off jitters in the Seattle business community.

“This is cause for great concern,” said Steve Leahy, senior vice president of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. “Boeing and the ancillary network of vendors in the region, by a study we commissioned last year, account for about 21% of this region’s economic base.”

Not only is the manufacturer of some of the world’s most widely used jetliners the economic cornerstone of the Northwest, Boeing is America’s No. 1 exporter, with $16 billion in sales abroad during 1990. More recent figures are not available.

In recent months, Boeing has watched a series of developments erode its business.

In October, 1991, President Bush canceled three missile programs, including two strategic missile launchers that were contracted to Boeing. Also, production of B-2 bombers--for which Boeing builds wing and fuselage sections, weapons and fuel systems--was drastically scaled back.

Finally, United, American and Lufthansa deferred previously announced purchases of commercial airplanes. Most recently, United, Boeing’s No. 1 customer, said it was delaying $6.7 billion in orders and options on 122 Boeing aircraft.

In a statement explaining the projected work force reduction, Boeing cited the missile contracts, the B-2 and “adjustments in commercial airplane operations to match market conditions, primarily through the reduction of the 737 production rate from 21 to 14 airplanes per month.”

Boeing workers in Wichita, Kan., where part of the Boeing 737 fuselage is made, were told earlier this month to expect cuts of up to 900 jobs.

In the early 1970s, a sharp slump in Boeing’s airplane business resulted in widespread layoffs and a depression-like economic shock throughout the Seattle region. Longtime residents remember well the billboards that went up in those years, saying, “Would the Last Person Leaving Seattle Please Turn Out the Lights.”

Despite the slumps in aerospace and commercial airlines, Boeing still has a huge backlog of orders. At the start of the year, the company said its backlog totaled $92.8 billion.

Boeing has recently taken pains to say that the deferral in jetliner orders is not expected to affect the “program milestones” of its 777 program.