Boeing announces layoffs, but hopes to reorganize workers

Boeing has announced 1,000 layoffs nationwide from its Integrated Defense Systems department, with many of the cuts expected to come in Huntington Beach.

Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems employs 4,545 people at its Huntington Beach plant. Matthew Billingsley, a spokesman for the company, said about 70 layoff notices went out Friday, mostly to Huntington Beach employees in the Future Combat Systems program, and more were expected July 31.

The employees, he said, had been given 60 days notice, and the company hoped to find them jobs with another Boeing project.

“These are all valuable, highly skilled employees that we would rather move to another Boeing project than lay off,” Billingsley said.

Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, attributed the layoffs to, among other things, budget cuts and a shifting in customer priorities, in a letter he sent out to nearly 70,000 employees July 13.

— Kathryn Watson and Michael Miller