American aviation giant Boeing has confirmed it will cut 4,500 jobs from across its international workforce.

The majority of the positions will go by the middle of 2016, with a third expected to come from voluntary redundancies.

The rest of the losses are expected to come through attrition, with the commercial aircraft division expected to see the largest number of staff leave.

Hundreds of executives and managers are also expected to lose their jobs.

The cuts account for almost three per cent of the Boeing workforce, which comprised 161,000 people at the end of last year.

As of December 31st, Boeing’s backlog of orders stood at 5,795, representing more than seven and a half years of production at the current rate.

However, new orders have been slowing, with carriers in Asia and the Middle East having purchased the aircraft required for further expansion.

Boeing has also been losing market share to rival Airbus.