Boeing to cut commercial plane workforce

SEATTLE, Wash. - Boeing said today that employment at its Commercial Airplanes business unit is expected to decline by about 4,500 positions in 2009 as part of an effort to control costs. The reduction will bring Commercial Airplanes' employment to about 63,500, about the level it was at the start of 2008. Most of the cuts are expected in Washington state in the second quarter of the year. (Source: Boeing, 01/09/09) Boeing's operations in New Orleans and Northwest Florida are not in the commercial airplanes sector.