Boeing Co. issued 60-day layoff notices to about 340 employees, an indication that it may continue cutting jobs in its commercial airplane division into next year.

Most of the new layoff notices Friday went to employees in the Puget Sound area of Washington state, where the aerospace manufacturer's commercial airplane division is based. Those notices would take effect Jan. 23.

Boeing had said it planned to cut its work force by about 40,000 people by the end of 2003, and had not given indications of its plans beyond that. Spokesman Peter Conte said the company will complete its employment forecast for 2004 in the next few weeks, and won't know until then whether it needs to make even deeper cuts.

The decision to send out notices to employees on Friday does not reflect any changes in Boeing's outlook, Conte said, but is part of the company's continuing effort to ``size itself according to the market demands.''

The company has eliminated 36,490 people from its payroll since December 2001. A few thousand other people have left Boeing this year due to attrition, although the exact number has not yet been calculated, Conte said.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks threw the commercial aviation industry into a severe downturn from which it has yet to emerge. Boeing saw new orders for airplanes dry up, and existing orders were pushed back as airlines struggled to stay in business.

Boeing delivered 381 jets in 2002. It expects to deliver 280 airplanes this year, and between 275-290 airplanes in 2004. Those are the lowest deliveries since 1996.

The continued job cuts are frustrating union representatives.

``Boeing keeps telling us ... we're getting close to the bottom,'' said Bill Dugovich, a spokesman for the Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, representing engineering and technical workers. But the company won't tell them where the bottom is, he said.

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