Boeing will cut about 5 per cent of the workforce in its commercial aeroplanes division, roughly 2,500 jobs, after slowing the pace at which it plans to raise 737 MAX production.
Stephanie Pope, the chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told staff in a memo on Monday that the division would shrink through a mix of attrition and involuntary layoffs, with the first notices going out in December. The plan was first reported by the Seattle Times.
The division employed 50,494 people at the end of 2025, according to Boeing’s own figures, so a 5 per cent cut works out at about 2,500 roles. Boeing has not confirmed an exact number, nor said which sites or roles will be affected.
Pope told employees that Boeing had adjusted its production schedules and reduced aircraft output to give its factories and supply-chain partners more time to reach stability. “Adjusting our production schedules and reducing aircraft output puts us in an overstaffed position,” she wrote, according to reports of the memo.
The 737 MAX, Boeing’s bestselling jet, is at the centre of the delay. The company no longer expects to reach a production rate of 47 MAX jets a month by the end of 2026; that target has slipped into early 2027. Chief executive Kelly Ortberg told analysts last month that output would not rise substantially until the second half of next year.
The cuts come despite a record order book. Boeing booked 300 net orders in the third quarter alone, and its commercial backlog stands at a record $612 billion, covering more than 6,300 aircraft. But the division lost $697 million in the quarter on revenue of $10.7 billion, an operating margin of minus 6.5 per cent, as production problems continued to weigh on deliveries.
It is the second big round of cuts at Boeing in two years. In late 2024, with its machinists on strike, the company announced it would cut about 10 per cent of its global workforce, roughly 17,000 jobs.
The machinists’ union, IAM District 751, said it had been notified of the latest plan but did not know how many of its members, or which ones, would be affected. The December notices will show which roles Boeing considers surplus.
Note on sourcing: the 2,500 figure is an estimate based on Boeing’s published workforce total, not a number the company has confirmed. The announcement itself was reported by the Seattle Times and Reuters from Pope’s internal memo; Boeing has not publicly named the roles or locations affected.
Sources: Reuters, “Boeing to cut 5% of planemaking division’s workforce, Seattle Times reports”, 9 November 2026 — https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-cut-5-planemaking-divisions-workforce-seattle-times-reports-2026-11-09/ ; The Aviation Hub, “Boeing Job Cuts: Why 2,500 Roles Go Despite a $612bn Backlog”, 10 November 2026 — https://theaviationhub.co.uk/why-boeing-is-cutting-jobs-with-a-record-612bn-backlog/
