For the first time in six years, Boeing employment grows

Boeing last year added almost 4,000 jobs in Washington and nearly 9,000 companywide, the aerospace giant’s first employment increase in six years.

Those numbers represent the net gains after retirements and other departures. All told, Boeing hired 8,500 workers last year in Washington, and made about 34,000 hires companywide.

The company released its annual employment figures Thursday. The data shows Boeing has 69,813 employees in the state, up 3,984 from a year ago.

Companywide, Boeing has 150,227 employees, up 8,905 from a year ago.

About 2,000 of those additional employees joined the payroll in October when Boeing completed the acquisition of Miami-based airplane-parts distributor KLX Aerospace.

This uptick follows five straight years of employment declines. In Washington, Boeing shed more than 6,000 jobs in 2017 and more than 7,300 in 2016.

Employment peaked most recently in the fall of 2012, when Boeing had 87,023 employees in Washington.