Will Boeing’s Deal With Iran Create 100,000 Jobs? No

Boeing Co. (NYSE. BA) will sell $16.6 billion worth of planes to Iran in a deal that it says will create 100,000 jobs. Can it possibly know that number? No. It is at best an educated guess. It is a nice round number, however.

The maneuvering to list how many jobs a company creates or saves was recently on parade as Donald Trump pressured Carrier to keep 800 jobs in the United States that would otherwise have gone to Mexico. Later, Carrier mentioned some of them eventually might be lost to automation. The United Steelworkers, which represents some Carrier workers, disputed the 800 figure.

More recently, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son announced he would invest $50 billion in the United States and would create 50,000 jobs. The announcement had no specifics.

[nativounit]

The Boeing jobs announcement came with extremely broad details:

Boeing [NYSE: BA] and Iran Air announced an agreement today for 80 aircraft that includes 50 737 MAX 8s, 15 777-300ERs and 15 777-9s, valued at $16.6 billion at list prices.

Based on its Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Iran Air announced in June, the contract was reached within the terms of the U.S. Government license issued to Boeing in September.

Also:

Today’s agreement will support tens of thousands of U.S. jobs directly associated with production and delivery of the 777-300ERs and nearly 100,000 U.S. jobs in the U.S. aerospace value stream for the full course of deliveries. The first airplanes under this agreement are scheduled for delivery in 2018.

Boeing and its more than 13,600 U.S. supplier and vendor partners across all 50 states are proud to ensure America continues to lead in global aerospace and to create jobs and opportunities in communities across the nation. Boeing’s U.S. supply chain currently supports more than 1.5 million U.S. jobs.

24/7 Wall St. recently wrote that the huge job creation figure might be a weapon to help block a potential challenge to the deal by some members of Congress.

The “nearly 100,000 U.S. jobs” that will be created through Boeing and its suppliers? How it knows the supplier number is a mystery that raises the accuracy question.

[wallst_email_signup]