BoeingThe greater than seven-week machinists' strike is predicted to affect Friday's U.S. jobs report – the last to be released before the Nov. 5 presidential election and the Federal Reserve meeting next week. Meanwhile, the corporate's threatened job cuts will only change into noticeable after months.
When the Labor Department conducted its survey in mid-October, about 44,000 U.S. employees were on strike. About 33,000 of them are Boeing machinists who walked off their jobs on September 13 after voting overwhelmingly against a union-backed labor contract and in favor of their first strike since 2008.
Economists expect the US to have added 100,000 jobs in October. Bank of America predicted this week that its workforce will probably be no less than 50,000 lower than it otherwise would have been as a consequence of the attacks and impacts of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said in a speech on Oct. 14 that these aspects could impact 100,000 jobs within the October report, calling the cuts a “significant but temporary loss of jobs.” He said they “might have a small impact on the unemployment rate, but I'm not sure it will be as visible.”
The machinists' strike at Boeing has exacerbated the plane maker's already difficult situation as its latest CEO Kelly Ortberg tries to drag the large U.S. manufacturer and exporter out of safety, quality and financial crises. Unionized machinists, mostly within the Seattle area, voted 64% last week against a brand new proposal that included a 35% wage increase, in comparison with a 25% wage increase in an earlier tentative agreement.
The Biden administration has intervened and pushed each side to achieve an agreement.
“With the continued support of Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, your union bargaining committee had a productive in-person meeting with the company to discuss key bargaining issues,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 said late Tuesday.
Su met with each side before the ultimate proposal was voted on Oct. 23.
Boeing's impact on U.S. employment is predicted to proceed. CEO Ortberg said earlier this month that the corporate would cut 10% of its global workforce, or 17,000 people, although warning letters about job losses usually are not expected to be sent out until mid-November.
Ortberg, who took over as CEO in early August, said Boeing must change into leaner and deal with its core businesses.
“One of the things I've heard from a lot of employees is that the overhead is just too much. It slows them down from doing their jobs,” he said in a quarterly call on Oct. 23. “So we're really going to focus this workforce reduction on streamlining those overhead activities and consolidating things that can be consolidated.”
Layoffs and their announcements are harder to incorporate in federal employment surveys than strikes because “we don't have a good sense of when they happen,” noted Bank of America economist Stephen Juneau.
The fallout from the Boeing strike may lead to further cuts in the delicate aerospace supply chain.
Boeing fuselage manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems Earlier this week, about 700 Wichita, Kansas, employees were placed on a 21-day furlough. A spokesman for the corporate that’s within the technique of acquiring Boeing told CNBC last week that Spirit is considering tons of more furloughs or layoffs if the Boeing strike continues beyond Nov. 25.
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