New York (CNN Business) The Boeing 737 Max is now on hold.

The assembly line in Renton, Washington, has temporarily stopped building Boeing's bestselling plane, the company confirmed late Monday. Boeing announced plans to pause production for an undetermined period in December, but it had not previously announced a precise day for the shutdown.

Boeing will not furlough or lay off workers because of the shutdown, but pain will ripple through its supply chain and could hurt America's economic growth. The shutdown will make restarting production and recovering from the crisis more difficult for Boeing once it finally gets permission for the plane to fly again

In a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration, the administration said its first priority is safety, and it is "following a thorough, deliberate process to verify that all proposed modifications to the Boeing 737 MAX meet the highest certification standards."

It added that it is continuing to work with other safety regulators "to review Boeing's work as the company conducts the required safety assessments and addresses all issues that arise during testing."

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