An updated assessment of aerospaces outsized impact on Washington state estimates that last year the industry supported 267,000 jobs here and paid out $22 billion in wages and $635 million in state taxes.

Seattle Times aerospace reporter

The number of Washington workers employed directly in aerospace edged down last year, but the industrys overall economic impact still grew, according to a new analysis commissioned by advocates for the industry.

Last year, the state had 93,400 aerospace jobs, down 800 from the previous year, a decline that was largely due to job cuts at Boeing.

Yet the increased economic impact was also due to Boeing, because of its injection of $320 million last January when each member of the Machinist union was paid a ratification bonus of $10,000 after they voted to extend their contract and accept a pension freeze to secure the 777X for the state.

That really boosted overall wages, even though the jobs actually went down, said Spencer Cohen, the analyst with Seattle-based consulting firm Community Attributes Inc. (CAI) who prepared the data.

The extra spending by Boeing Machinists supported a lot of indirect jobs in sectors such as retail and auto sales, Cohen said.

As a result, the new study estimates that in 2014 the aerospace industry supported a total of 267,000 direct and indirect jobs that paid out $22 billion in wages.

CAI estimates the state took in $635 million in taxes due to aerospace activity, including $201 million in direct business taxes paid by aerospace companies, plus additional business taxes paid by suppliers to those companies and sales taxes on items bought by employees.

Boeings commercial-jet activities generated $528 million in taxes for the state including direct taxes paid by Boeing, direct taxes paid by Boeing suppliers, and sales taxes directly and indirectly linked to its business.

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States aerospace sector slims down, but economic impact grows