Boeing is set to begin laying off 17,000 employees today, representing 10% of its workforce. This move follows an announcement by Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg last month that the company would reduce its workforce by 10% in the coming months.
Ortberg explained that the layoffs were necessary to navigate a challenging environment and to "make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term," according to CNN Business. Boeing has been struggling with a series of failures that contributed to catastrophic incidents, resulting in hundreds of fatalities, and the company has lost more than $33 billion over the past five years.
Despite these losses, Boeing maintained a workforce larger than it had at its peak production levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. Bloomberg reported that the company employed 171,000 people at the start of this year, 12% more than the 153,000 employees it had five years ago, before the pandemic.
During an October 23 earnings call, Ortberg stated, “We need to reset priorities and create a leaner, more focused organization.” He added that the layoffs were aimed at "consolidation of areas where we’re not efficient, and we need to continue to focus on reducing non-essential activity."
