BOEING LAYS OFF 396 MORE WORKERS IN WASHINGTON 

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 10 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- Boeing has laid off 396 more workers in the US state of Washington in a second round of job cuts, according to a notice filed Monday with the state's employment security department.

That's in addition to the 2,199 layoff notices Boeing delivered to Washington workers last month, bringing the total number of job cuts in the state to nearly 2,600.

The layoffs are part of sweeping job cuts at Boeing, which announced in October it planned to reduce its workforce by 10 per cent, or roughly 17,000 people in the coming months, reported Xinhua.

In the first wave of layoffs in November, Boeing laid off roughly 3,500 people around the country, according to notices filed with state employment agencies. Washington state, where Boeing has 66,000 workers, got the heaviest hit from the cuts that round.

The layoffs, expected to hit all sorts of jobs and experience levels, have so far impacted nearly 4 per cent of Boeing's professional aerospace union.

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace said Friday that the two rounds of job cuts had impacted 660 people.

Announcing the layoffs in October, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company had to "reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities."

-- BERNAMA-XINHUA