Boeing plans to cut about 5 percent of the workforce in its Commercial Airplanes division — roughly 2,500 jobs — as a slower-than-expected ramp-up in 737 Max production leaves the planemaker overstaffed.
Stephanie Pope, chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told employees in a memo on Monday that the company will reduce headcount through a combination of attrition and involuntary layoffs, with notifications starting in December.
"Adjusting our production schedules and reducing aircraft output puts us in an overstaffed position," Pope wrote, according to the memo reported by CNBC and Reuters.
The division employed 50,494 people as of December 2025, according to Boeing's website. Boeing is required in many states to give workers 60 days' notice before layoffs.
Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg told analysts last month that Boeing would miss its 737 production and delivery targets for 2026. The company now expects to reach a production rate of 47 aircraft a month in early 2027, against an earlier target of summer 2026, and is targeting 52 a month only in the second half of 2027.
Shares of Boeing slipped about 1 percent on Monday after the reports. The cuts would be Boeing's first major workforce reduction since 2024, when it cut 17,000 jobs amid financial difficulties following a machinists' strike.
The commercial division's backlog stood at more than 6,300 airplanes, valued at a record $612 billion, at the end of the third quarter.
