Onward to prosperity!

Shitty.

No industry in the world is as cyclical as aircraft manufacture. I'll bet Boeing has laid off 4500 jobs 25 times in the last several decades. It sucks if it's you, but you've probably been there before.

What was it in 1970, ten times that?

Most of this is related to Boeing outsourcing production of the 787 and thus being unable to meet delivery deadlines, not due to a lack of demand.

Everyone wants jets with efficient engines, but Boeing sold them down the river.

And skipped town.

Fnarf (you're correct, but in case you're curious): From 1967 to 1971, the company cut 95,180 people of whom 63,674 lived in the Seattle area. My family moved to the area a few years after this, and it was still very much the issue of the day.

Even during otherwise prosperous times, they've have orders fall through. In 2001 they announced layoffs of 20-30,000, company-wide.

I feel for the people out of work - my brother-in-law is a machinist there - but I don't think this latest round of layoffs is a necessarily portentous sign of the company's future.

the Boeing tax exemption has worked out nicely for Washington State.......

@6: Yeah, how about that tax break? That really spurred industry, didn't it?

No, we what really need to do is hammer industry in this state (ie, Boeing and Microsoft) so that we can completely kill off local manufacturing. Raise taxes and make them even less competitive, and watch the number of layoffs double or triple. Unfortunately economics is not stressed in our public school system.

The bright side to this scenario is that our roads would be more passable with less drivers, and housing would depreciated (become affordable again) due to faltering incomes.

I'm glad I got a job on the east coast before having the chance of getting the chop working in the spares division at Boeing. I lucked out.