Boeing Cuts 2,500 Jobs Because It Can’t Build Planes Fast Enough

Boeing (NYSE:BA | BA Price Prediction) has more plane orders than at any point in its history. It also has more factory workers than it can use. Those two facts clashed this week.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes will cut about 5% of its workforce through attrition and involuntary layoffs. Notifications begin in December. Stephanie Pope, chief executive of the airliner business, announced the cuts in a Nov. 9, 2026 memo to staff, which The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider reported. The division employed 50,494 people as of December 2025, so the cut comes to about 2,500 jobs.

The Wall Street Journal published the reason Pope gave staff:

"Adjusting our production schedules and reducing aircraft output puts us in an overstaffed position."

My take: Boeing’s comeback has stalled.

A Record Backlog With Too Many Workers

Layoffs usually follow a drop in demand. Boeing has the opposite problem. Total backlog hit a record $745 billion in the third quarter. The airliner business alone held a record $612 billion, more than 6,300 planes, with new orders in the quarter from Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines and Lufthansa.

A company with years of orders waiting should be hiring. Boeing is cutting because the constraint sits inside its own factories.

Bloomberg reported that these are the division’s first significant job cuts in close to two years. In October 2024, chief executive Kelly Ortberg announced plans to cut about 17,000 jobs, about 10% of Boeing’s global workforce. That round came early in a recovery that started after the Alaska Airlines door-plug blowout in January 2024. This time, the recovery has hit a wall.

Boeing’s 737 Number Keeps Slipping

The 737 MAX is Boeing’s best-selling plane, and its monthly production rate is the number that decides this recovery. Boeing has been pushing toward 47 a month. In October it said the push was not going as planned, and the target slipped into 2027. Ortberg said this on the third-quarter call:

"It is taking us longer than we had expected to demonstrate performance at rate 47. We are making progress, but we still have more work to do, and I am expecting it will take us into next year to get fully stable at this rate."

The delay is the shop that builds every 737 wing. Ortberg admitted the repairs meant to speed it up fell short:

"Some of those flow enablers just flat out did not yield the flow savings. Some did, some did not."

He added that "engines are not a problem in this equation," which leaves Boeing with no outside supplier to blame for the 737 delay. Chief financial officer Jesus Malave Jr. said deliveries will "come in shy of the 500-delivery target."

Lockheed and Airbus Show What Boeing Is Missing

Business Insider reported that the airliner unit made 44% of Boeing’s revenue last quarter and lost $697 million. Its operating margin was negative 6.5%. Boeing’s defense and services units were profitable, with services posting an 18.3% margin.

Compare that with Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), whose backlog reached a record $292 billion. Its stock is up 24.9% this year.

Airbus (OTC:EADSY), Boeing’s main rival for big jets, has gone nowhere. Its U.S. shares are down 1.5% this year and 6.9% over 12 months. Investors are lukewarm on jet makers in general and much tougher on Boeing.

January Buyers Have Lost a Third

Boeing closed at $171.55 on Thursday, Nov. 12. The stock is down about 21% in 2026. That close sits 32% below the 2026 high close of $252.15 on Jan. 23 and 61% below the record close of $440.62 on March 1, 2019. Investors who bought the comeback story in January have lost about a third of their money.

Boeing makes sense for you if you believe the wing shop steadies early next year and management hits its target of about $3 billion of free cash flow in 2027. If you think the 47 target keeps slipping, that backlog is just a long line of customers waiting on planes Boeing can’t build.

What to Watch in 2027

Boeing needs the 737 to reach 47 a month in 2027 and hold it. Boeing now plans the next step, rate 52, for the back half of 2027. Ortberg promised patience:

"Everybody wants us to go fast; I get that. But we are going to stay disciplined as we ramp up here."

Boeing has the customers and a record backlog. Pope’s memo says it has more people than it can use. What it still needs is a wing shop that can hold 47 a month. Until it gets one, Boeing will keep doing something that makes no sense for a healthy manufacturer: booking record orders while it lays off the people who build the planes.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.