Boeing’s Hiring Pace Continues To Slow

The Boeing Co. is still taking on thousands of new employees, but the pace is expected to continue to slack off from last year’s hiring frenzy.

The company’s latest hiring figures, released Monday, show Boeing has added more than 5,000 employees since mid-January, including 1,856 in the last four weeks.

That brings total company employment as of April 17 to 152,837, including 92,629 in Washington state.

The pace of hiring is expected to continue to slow, with up to 10,000 new hires expected this year, compared with 21,000 in 1996, company spokesman Peter Conte said.

The current rate of hiring is about 250 new workers per week, he said.

The latest figures show 20,403 Boeing workers in California, 19,732 in Wichita, Kan., 5,952 at Boeing’s helicopter division in Philadelphia, and 2,063 in Huntsville, Ala. About 12,000 more employees are scattered across the country.