By Alwyn Scott NEW YORK (Reuters) - For most of its 100-year history, when Boeing turned out more planes, employment soared and the Seattle-area economy prospered. When the rate of production fell, layoffs followed and the local economy crashed. The cycle was so predictable that Boeing workers had a phrase for it: "Headcount goes by rate." Now that longstanding cycle has broken down. The world's largest plane maker is in the midst of its biggest peacetime boom, churning out 20 percent more planes than when the last big cycle peaked in the 1990s. But it is doing so with one-third fewer workers. In their place, Boeing is turning to robots and outsourcing. In the past year, Boeing installed...
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