Cost Cutting Will Send Hundreds Of Boeing Jobs to Arizona

Overall, officials and sources say it's part of a number of cost-cutting measures to save the aerospace giant money, and to reorganize and make itself more efficient.

The Seattle Times reported Thursday hundreds of workers in the Boeing SSG, or Shared Services Group, will be moved to Mesa, AZ soon.  The SSG provides a wide range of support services to Boeing's production and corporate units.

Officials say reorganization will also take place, removing some management levels. The Times says it's part of sweeping changes that have resulted in the loss of some 18,300 jobs in the state since 2012. That's when Boeing was at it's peak here.

Many jobs have gone to the South Carolina plant, others were eliminated. According to sources between only 5 and ten percent of the workers will receive relocation packages to those who are considered essential to the SSG.  Apparently, the rest could be let go. The company hopes to avoid layoffs by shifting the work to AZ, and lose some jobs through what they called 'attrition.'

Some say the overall reductions and relocations over the years are a result of 'unfriendly' tax and business conditions in WA. Others say jobs were driven to, for example, South Carolina because of a more friendly non-union work environment.