Boeing to Add IT Jobs in Hazelwood, Layoff 700 Elsewhere

Boeing Commercial Airplanes plans to lay off up to 700 engineers this year, as part of an overall engineering reduction of up to 1,700 people. That's according to a Bloomberg report.

As part of the restructuring, the manufacturer plans to move IT work to St. Louis, which includes the City of Hazelwood; North Charleston, S.C.; and Puget Sound, Wash. These are considered locations that already have a significant IT presence, company officials said. That will likely include some new jobs in Hazelwood.

“How many there are and what they are we don’t know yet,” Andrew Favreau, a communications specialist at Boeing Co., told the St. Louis Business Journal.

Mike Delaney, vice president of engineering for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, sent the news about layoffs to employees via email, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports.

None of the 700 engineers being laid off work at Boeing’s Hazelwood operations, Favreau told The Business Journal.

Lay offs on the assembly lines can be attributed to the fact Boeing says efficiency gains mean those workers are no longer needed, according to the Seattle Times.

Boeing Defense, Space & Security, based in Hazelwood, is a $32 billion business with 14,730 local employees. It is a unit of Chicago-based Boeing (NYSE: BA).

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