The Layoff Club

Laid off from Boeing.

Boeing has run layoffs the old industrial way, WARN notices, union math, and severance reported in the 2024 rounds at roughly a week per year. The union FAQ is often more useful than HR's version, and the state you worked in matters more than usual.

At a glance

What's known about Boeing severance and layoffs

  • About 1 week of pay per year of service · Severance, 2024 round
  • Two months on payroll after the notice · Notice, 2024 round
  • Subsidized up to 3 months after leaving · Healthcare, 2024 round
  • Up to six months, member pays a share · Healthcare, IAM 751's 2020 guidance
  • Contract sets the layoff benefit, per both unions · Union-represented staff
  • About 40 percent at the end of 2025 · Union share of the workforce
  • 542 all time, 13 since 2025 began · WARN filings in our tracker

Recent Boeing layoffs

Boeing's newest filings on record are five small California notices

Our tracker's newest Boeing rows are five California filings from April 2026 covering 19 jobs. Before them, AeroTime reported that an anonymous source had told Bloomberg Boeing would cut around 300 Defense, Space & Security roles in February 2026, which Boeing answered without a number. Nothing larger sits in our tracker since.

Previous rounds

Boeing layoff history

The round that still defines Boeing arrived as a memo. On 11 October 2024 Boeing published a message from CEO Kelly Ortberg telling employees the company planned to cut its total workforce by roughly 10 percent over the coming months, reaching executives, managers and employees. The percentage was the only number he gave. Notices went out in mid-November, 438 of them to SPEEA members in one week, split evenly between the professional and technical units. Most people who got one stayed on the payroll for two months without being expected to work, with career transition services and subsidized health insurance for up to three months. Reporting attributed to Reuters put the severance at typically a week of pay for each year of service. Boeing's own annual report booked the round as $295 million of severance.

The machinists sat that round out. Puget Sound had been idle for weeks that fall while IAM District 751 struck for 53 days, and the Seattle Times reported in December that the machinists came back in November and hadn't been hit by the layoffs. Ortberg said the cuts weren't a result of the strike but a decision to focus on the core of the business. District 751 is no marginal group. Boeing's 2025 annual report puts the IAM at 25 percent of the workforce and the district at over 30,000 manufacturing employees in Washington, on an agreement running to September 2028.

Both unions publish their layoff terms, which makes this a rare severance schedule a person can read before anything happens to them. SPEEA's table runs three ways. A normal layoff pays one week per year of service to a maximum of 26 weeks with three months of subsidized COBRA. A voluntary layoff pays the same but requires the lump sum and a release and gives up recall rights. A work movement layoff pays two weeks per year, a minimum of 26 weeks and a maximum of 60, with six months of COBRA. IAM District 751's guidance describes Article 23 paying one week of base rate plus COLA for each full year up to 26 weeks, and six months of medical coverage if the member keeps paying their share. Both are union documents rather than Boeing's, and the IAM figures come from guidance published before the November 2024 contract, so check them against the current agreement.

The filing history is the deepest in this collection. Our tracker holds 542 Boeing notices all time and 13 covering 3,163 jobs across six states since the start of 2025, and the January 2025 wave landed unevenly. One Washington filing dated 17 January 2025 listed 2,192 jobs against 220 in Charleston the same day and 101 in Pennsylvania, with 89 at Old Gentilly Road in New Orleans and another 396 in Washington the month after. The Seattle Times counted 2,199 people in Washington in that first round and more than 3,500 nationally. If your notice came from a state we track, the filing itself is public and worth pulling, because it records the site, the job count and the effective date Boeing reported, all worth comparing against the notice you were handed.

Defense and space filed on their own schedule. Huntsville cut 71 people from 18 April 2025 on top of 158 the month before, at a site Manufacturing Dive describes as working on space and defense programs including Artemis, where Boeing is NASA's lead contractor for the moon rocket. North Charleston went to a third round in the same stretch, roughly 69 jobs plus another eight from 5 April, after 287 there in January and February. On the launch program Boeing told employees of about 400 possible cuts, and a spokesperson said it expected fewer than 200 involuntary layoffs under the WARN Act.

The headcount went the other way. Boeing reported about 172,000 people on 31 December 2024 and about 182,000 on the same date in 2025, a rise of roughly 10,000 that comes from subtracting one annual report from the other rather than from any figure Boeing publishes. Three weeks before that second count it closed its acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems, which the filing describes as employing about 15,000 people. The severance liability booked for the round stood at $287 million at the end of 2024 and at zero a year later, and in February 2025 a spokesperson said Boeing had mitigated the majority of the announced 10 percent reduction. If you were in that count, the agreement in front of you decides your money, and if you're represented, the contract behind it.

Reporting on previous Boeing layoff rounds

How Boeing's layoffs compare to other companies

The week per year in the reported 2024 terms also sits in both unions' published schedules, which makes Boeing unusually knowable in advance. What varies is the classification. SPEEA's table pays double, two weeks per year, for a work movement layoff, and the IAM's figures predate its November 2024 contract.

What to do after being laid off from Boeing

  1. File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Boeing's biggest hubs: Washington, South Carolina, Missouri, California. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
  2. Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Boeing's hub states run: Washington, South Carolina, Missouri, California, and every other state is here.
  3. Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
  4. Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
  5. Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.

Boeing layoff and severance questions

What did Boeing pay in the 2024 layoffs?

Reporting on the November 2024 notices, attributed to Reuters, put it at typically a week of pay for each year of service. Most people laid off stayed on the payroll for two months without being expected to work, with career transition services and subsidized health insurance for three months. No severance formula from Boeing itself is on record. What the company published was a total, $295 million booked in its 2024 annual report.

I'm union represented at Boeing. Who controls my severance?

Your contract, and both unions publish schedules for it. SPEEA's table pays one week per year of service up to 26 weeks on a normal layoff, and two weeks per year, 26 to 60 weeks, for a work movement layoff. IAM District 751's published guidance, which dates from before the November 2024 agreement, describes Article 23 paying a week of base rate plus COLA per full year up to 26 weeks, plus up to six months of medical coverage. Confirm those IAM numbers against the current contract with your hall.

Is Boeing still cutting jobs in 2026?

In small numbers, on the record we track. Our tracker holds five Boeing filings in 2026 covering 19 jobs, all in California and all filed the same April day. The larger 2026 item is reporting rather than a filing, around 300 Defense, Space & Security roles an anonymous source described to Bloomberg in February, which Boeing answered without a number.

How long does Boeing keep you on payroll after a layoff notice?

In the 2024 rounds it was two months, and most people weren't expected to keep working through them. Those notified in mid-November stayed on the payroll through mid-January, matching the 17 January 2025 date on our tracker's largest Washington filing. IAM District 751 members have one documented way to shorten it. The union's checklist describes an accelerated layoff a member can request with proof of a job offer elsewhere, released within 14 days, though it waives the 60-day WARN notice.

Should I take my Boeing layoff benefit as a lump sum or as income continuation?

If you're IAM District 751, your union's answer is on paper and it leans hard one way. Its published guidance says the lump sum eliminates your seniority and recall rights, so a member who comes back starts at zero, and District 751 recommends income continuation for that reason. Recall carries real time there, three years for members under three years of seniority, rising to eight at five or more. All of that predates the November 2024 agreement, so confirm it with your hall. If you're not represented, your own agreement decides.

Where do I file for unemployment after being laid off from Boeing?

In the state where you worked, not where the company is headquartered. Boeing's biggest U.S. hubs are Washington, South Carolina, Missouri, California. Severance usually doesn't block you from filing, and benefits run from your filing date, so file the same week.

Is it OK to file for unemployment after a layoff at Boeing?

Yes. Unemployment insurance is funded by payroll taxes employers pay on wages, the claim never appears on credit reports or background checks, and future employers cannot see it. If the hesitation itself is the obstacle, whether filing is OK has its own article.

What happens to my health insurance after a layoff at Boeing?

Your plan sets the end date rather than the law, so the separation packet is where that date actually lives, and it is often the last day of the month rather than your last day of work. After coverage ends, COBRA lets you keep the identical plan by paying the whole premium yourself, up to 102 percent of what the plan really costs, which lands as several times the payroll deduction you were used to. You get 60 days to elect, counted from the later of coverage ending or the election notice arriving, and electing reaches the coverage back to the day the old plan stopped so no gap exists. How continuation coverage works walks the timing, and whether to take it rather than a marketplace plan is a separate decision.

Should I sign the severance agreement right away?

First pin down how much review time you actually have. If you're 40 or older, federal law gives you 21 days to consider an agreement that waives age claims, 45 in a group layoff, and a waiver signed under a shorter deadline can be invalid. If you're under 40, no federal window applies and the deadline in your packet may be real, so confirm it in writing and ask for more time if you need it. Use whatever window you have to read the release terms, especially non-disparagement and no-lawsuit clauses, and don't stall past a real deadline, because offers can be withdrawn.

Can I collect unemployment if I got severance from Boeing?

Usually yes, though some states delay benefits until severance pay periods end, and lump sums are treated differently than salary continuation. Check your state's rules on our state benefit pages, and file immediately either way so your claim date is locked in.