The study concluded that in 2004 as many as 406,000 jobs shifted from the U.S. to other countries.The true impact of outsourcing remains controversial. "There's mass confusion in the field on this one," said regional economist Scott Bailey of the state's Employment Security Department. Undeniably, Boeing, in seeking to stay competitive with Airbus, has dramatically reshaped airplane production as a global partnership with overseas suppliers of parts.
A spokesman said Boeing does not have data on how many of its layoffs could be attributed to outsourcing.
A January 2005 report by state economic analyst Alex Roubinchtein estimates that the aerospace-employment decline is one-third cyclical and two-thirds due to permanent structural changes — factors that include increased imports from outside the U.S. and increased productivity.
That means as many as two-thirds of the 51,000 local aerospace jobs that Boeing cut from 1998 through 2004 may have permanently disappeared.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002243920_postmanuside17.html
How many went to Spirit and aren't those people much more productive than the 'Boeing' workers they replaced? I'm thinking of the 11 day 737 assembly time vs the 20-some days it used to be.