Wichita ? The Boeing Co. handed out 60-day layoff notices Friday to another 42 workers at its Wichita facility as part of its plan to reduce employment in its commercial airplanes division.

Friday also was the last day of work for another 39 workers who had received notices on April 18.

The Wichita cuts are part of the company’s campaign to reduce its employment levels by 35,000 people throughout the company between the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the end of 2003.

The Wichita workers were among the 845 employees across the company who received the layoff notices Friday. The effective date for the new layoffs, which included both hourly and salary workers, will be Aug. 22.

While the company continues to trim employment in its commercial division, overall employment at the Wichita plant is actually up from year-end 2002 levels, said Boeing spokesman Fred Solis.

Boeing-Wichita now has 12,600 workers, up from the 12,400 workers on the payroll at the end of 2002.

“We have actually come up a little bit due to some of the requirements on the military side,” Solis said.

He said the latest layoffs are the result of low attrition rates and the skill-mix needed at the various divisions. “We can be growing and still laying off and that is why,” he said.

About 100 military jobs were added in Wichita this year, bringing its military employment here to 3,100.

The latest job cuts came the same day states submitted their bids for the proposed Boeing 7E7 jetliner assembly plant.

Wichita is not in the competition for the final 7E7 assembly work, although the company is a strong contender for its airframe work.

Wichita is competing to supply the nose sections, forward fuselage sections, and engine nacelles and struts. The work could bring as many as 4,000 jobs to Wichita, although the total would include workers reassigned to the 7E7 project, Boeing officials have said.

“We wanted to focus on what we do best and what we are known for is not final assembly but component work … That is where our expertise lies,” Solis said.

The Boeing plant in Wichita was the company’s only site specifically identified as a candidate for airframe work earlier this week at the Paris Air Show.

The Kansas Legislature has approved up to $500 million in bonds to finance the project at Boeing Wichita.

“It has made a tremendous difference in helping strengthen our position as an airframe candidate,” Solis said of the bonds. “We were able to make the last cut and advance to the next level in that process and having state support behind us was tremendous.”