Boeing to cut 4,500 jobs

By Chris Isidore
CNNMoney.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Aircraft maker Boeing, one of the few employers that added workers through the nationwide labor market downturn last year, announced Friday it will cut 4,500 jobs this year, undoing the employment gains it achieved in 2008.

The job cuts in Boeing's Commercial Airplanes division will take employment in the unit back to 63,500, about where it stood a year ago.

"We are taking prudent actions to make sure Boeing remains well positioned in today's difficult economic environment," said Scott Carson, president and CEO of the unit.

The news comes on the same day that the Labor Department reported that employers shed 2.6 million jobs last year, the worst job loss suffered by the U.S. economy since 1945.