Boeing announced coming layoffs of hundreds of engineers in Washington and other locations because of slow aircraft sales.
The company will notify employees about their jobs on Friday, the same day that 305 engineers and technical workers had volunteered to leave Boeing in connection with an earlier buyout offer, Bloomberg reported.
"Despite tireless work by the sales team, orders have slowed," Elizabeth Lund, vice president responsible for Boeing's 777 program, said, according to the Seattle Times. "The market is signaling near-term hesitation in some regions.
"The exact number of affected positions has not yet been determined. We will do our best to lessen the impact," Lund continued.
John Hamilton, Boeing's vice president of engineering for the commercial airplanes unit, said in a memo to employees Monday that Boeing's plans for future layoffs will depend on "our business environment and the amount of voluntary attrition," Bloomberg reported.
"We are moving forward with a second phase of involuntary layoffs for some select skills in Washington state and other enterprise locations," the memo said, according to Reuters. "We anticipate this will impact hundreds of engineering employees. Additional reductions in engineering later this year will be driven by our business environment and the amount of voluntary attrition."
The Seattle Times reported that Boeing slashed nearly 7,400 jobs in Washington State in 2015. Bill Dugovich, spokesman for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, said the union is trying to get additional information from the company about the planned layoffs.
Connie Kelliher, a spokeswoman for the International Association of Machinists, told the Seattle Times that its union has not been informed by the company of any imminent layoffs.
"We also will monitor other Boeing job moves during this time," Jon Holden, District 751 president of the International Association of Machinists, told the Seattle Times. "We have great concern about the number of jobs leaving our facilities in Puget Sound for new locations."