Boeing Shifts Engineering Work to Long Beach, S. Carolina

Updated with Long Beach Mayor's comment.

Boeing announced Friday that a large amount of engineering jobs will be moved from the Puget Sound to South Carolina and Long Beach, where the work will include engineering support for airline planes such as 737 classics and 757s.

"These are precisely the high-skilled, high-wage jobs that are needed for building strong economies of the future," Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster stated in response Friday afternoon. "We work hard cultivating an environment of research and innovation here, and this solidifies Boeing’s rich tradition and long history in Long Beach."  

Boeing announced Friday: "The new Southern California engineering design center will now be home to engineering support for out-of-production airplanes. Boeing's Southern California engineering team in Long Beach is already the center for support to heritage McDonnell Douglas airplanes." 

"We will leverage the new Southern California design center to create a single location for out-of-production airplane support, enabling us to streamline processes and develop common practices," said Lynne Thompson, vice president of Boeing Customer Support. 

During the next six to nine months, the company stated, "the most out-of-production airplane support, including the 707, 727, 737-100/-200/-300/-400/-500 and 757, will move from Puget Sound to Long Beach."

The Seattle Times' aerospace reporter Dominic Gates reported that the jobs are for current and future work, and that the company revealed that it's exploring opening a new engineering design center in Kiev, Ukraine; it already has one in Moscow, Russia.

"The most significant immediate impact," Gates wrote, "comes from the decision to move engineering support for airlines that fly out-of-production airplanes — such as older 737 classics and 757s — from Tukwila to Long Beach, Calif., within six to nine months. More than 300 engineers work in (the Puget Sound) unit. Many of them are older with family connections that may make a move to California impractical."

Read the full Seattle Times story here and the Boeing news release here.