Boeing Co. said Friday it will lay off some 800 machinists by the end of this year as work force needs on its newest jet programs, the 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 jumbo jet, are reduced.

Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said that other reductions will be made through attrition so that the total number of positions cut this year will be between 2,000 and 2,300.

“We always expected employment requirements would come down on these programs after we stabilized production,” said Alder. “That’s what’s happening.”

Alder said that the cuts are not related to the current grounding of the 787 due to problems with its battery system.

The cuts will come chiefly among employees who work on refurbishing and doing modifications on jets that have rolled off the assembly line in need of rework, he said.

Boeing has several thousand employees working at what’s called the Everett Modification Center, a former supplier building at the south end of Paine Field in Everett, Wash.

The cuts come even though the 787 modifications are expected to through 2014 and possibly into 2015, and despite that the 787 production rate is set to increase from five jets per month to 10 per month by year end.