Boeing to Boost Jobs by at Least 5,000; Suppliers React Cautiously
Responding to a long-awaited upturn in jetliner orders, Boeing Co. plans to hire 5,000 to 7,000 workers in the next 12 months, mainly in the region surrounding its Seattle headquarters, people familiar with the company’s hiring plans said Friday.
But the expansion of Boeing’s work force to accommodate its increased production doesn’t yet appear to be setting off a hiring binge at Boeing’s suppliers--hundreds of which are in Southern California.
Some of those firms, still smarting financially from the industry’s nose dive in the early 1990s, said that for now they’ll cope with any additional Boeing work with their existing employees in order to keep their costs down.
“I wish we could say we’re adding people, but we don’t see any substantial hiring for the next year or two,” said Ken Scholz, treasurer of Rohr Inc., a Chula Vista-based manufacturer of engine coverings and a major Boeing supplier.
“We’re doing everything we can to remain cost-competitive,” he said.
Other major Boeing subcontractors in Southern California include Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp., which makes fuselages and other body parts, and AlliedSignal Inc.’s Torrance-based aerospace group, which builds cabin pressure control systems, auxiliary power systems and other equipment for Boeing.
Also, jobs at McDonnell Douglas’ commercial aerospace operations in Long Beach won’t increase significantly, because it hasn’t yet enjoyed the order surge that Boeing has.
Boeing spokesman Paul Binder declined comment on his company’s employment, pending a formal Boeing forecast that is expected to be made public within the next few weeks.
But others familiar with Boeing’s employment plans said the world’s largest commercial aircraft builder probably will hire at least 5,000 people by early next year. “And a figure of 7,000 is not unreasonable,” said one source in Seattle. They also noted that Boeing has recently run advertisements in Seattle-area newspapers seeking airplane assemblers.
Investors cheered Boeing’s plans, which were reported Friday in the Wall Street Journal, as the latest evidence of the commercial aircraft industry’s resurgence. Boeing stock jumped $3.125 a share to $82.625--a 52-week high--in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Last fall, Boeing was hit by a 10-week strike by the International Assn. of Machinists. But after the sides reached a new contract to end the walkout, Boeing announced in December that it would boost production rates this year.
Boeing in recent weeks also has landed major new orders totaling several billion dollars, particularly for its new 777 wide-body jetliner.
Still, Boeing’s hiring this year would fall far short of the number of Boeing workers laid off during the industry’s slump. Boeing has slashed nearly 30,000 jobs since 1991; its commercial airplane unit currently employs about 67,000. Boeing worldwide employs about 105,000.
Nonetheless, “we’re seeing the turnaround, and it’s making us feel good,” said Bill Johnson, president of Machinists District Lodge 751, the union local that represents 24,000 Boeing workers.
“Our people are starting to feel a little secure, and they haven’t had that feeling for a long time,” he said, adding that his union local has lost 20,000 Boeing members since 1989.
Another union official, Charles Bofferding, said he was “not surprised” by Boeing’s hiring plans because the company had aggressively reduced its work force last year.
“They had cut back too far too fast,” said Bofferding, executive director of the Seattle Professional Engineering Employees Assn., which represents about 23,000 Boeing engineers and other workers.
* POLITICAL TIGHTROPE
Clinton faced a tough choice over B-2: alienate voters or the Pentagon. A1
* JOB SLOWDOWN
B-2 plant in Palmdale was already scaling back employment. D2
