Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. plans to hire 4,000 to 5,000 workers next year at its commercial hubs in Seattle and South Carolina as exports drive growth, Chief Executive Officer Jim McNerney said.
Business executives encouraged U.S. President Barack Obama in a meeting today to sign more bilateral trade agreements with countries including China and India, McNerney said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
Obama is committed to agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, and there was a sense in the room that Korea is the beginning, not the end, McNerney said of todays meeting. The group agreed to move beyond the rhetoric of whether the Obama administration was anti-business or not, he said.
About 80 percent of Boeings commercial-plane backlog is made up of purchases from abroad. The company is boosting production at its Seattle base to work through seven years worth of unfilled orders and is building a new factory in Charleston, South Carolina, to build its new 787 Dreamliner.
During the recession, McNerney said the company needed to cut about 10,000 jobs, or 6 percent of the workforce.
Boeing, based in Chicago, fell 26 cents to $64.23 at 3:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares had gained 19 percent this year before today.