Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian positions with a U.S.-supplied howitzer. Photo: LIBKOS/Associated Press
Posted on 04/29/2023 9:10:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The war in Ukraine is so profitable for defense companies in the US and Europe that they're having trouble finding thousands of skilled workers to satisfy a record influx of orders, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian positions with a U.S.-supplied howitzer. Photo: LIBKOS/Associated Press
Part of the issue is that jobs in the defense industry require niche skills and security clearances - a problem compounded by a flood of defense companies trying to hire at the same time in an industry which has long struggled to meet recruitment goals.
"Our first priority is really to ramp up capacity, which, of course, means increasing staff," according to Patrice Caine, CEO of French component maker Thales, which plans to hire 12,000 people this year to make submarine sensors, jets, and other military items. Caine described the situation as "tensions on some labor markets," which they plan to deal with by outsourcing to 'foreign engineering centers,' as well as relying on corporate partners.
In 2022, global military spending rose 3.7% to a record $2.24 trillion - with European expenditures increasing at its steepest YoY rate in at least 30 years, according to data released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank.
The labor shortage among US defense contractors has been an issue since last year, when efforts to replace workers from pandemic furloughs were accelerated - and most companies failing to hit their recruitment goals. That said, hiring has improved in recent months according to the report.
In Europe, however, the problem may actually get worse - with European governments increasing military spending, causing weapons makers - particularly munitions manufacturers - to launch large recruitment drives.
Europe’s largest defense company, BAE Systems PLC, is hiring 2,600 this year for its apprentice and graduate training programs, and several thousand more for other roles. Missile maker MBDA wants to add 2,000 workers, equivalent to more than 15% of its workforce. Others including Saab AB, the Swedish maker of the Gripen jet fighter, and Rheinmetall AG, the German company that helps make the Leopard tank, also plan to hire thousands of new workers. -WSJ
"Defense companies are worried at the moment about recruitment," according to ADS Group Chief Economist, Aimie Stone, citing competition for talent within the industry, along with a revived civil aerospace sector and an emerging space industry. According to Stone, ADS members had 10,000 job openings at the end of last year.
UK-based recruiter, Kieran Slaughter, says the defense industry has always posed recruitment challenges, as automakers and airplane manufacturers are competing for the same talent pool, tend to pay more, and don't require security clearances - a process which can take 2-8 weeks in Europe, and several months in the US.
"Some candidates don’t want to wait around," said Slaughter.
What's more, many jobs in the defense industry are highly specialized - such as warhead engineers - which Colin McClean, a managing director at BAE Systems, says are a "rare commodity."
US Navy shipbuilder, General Dynamics, was in one of the hardest-hit sectors during the pandemic. In 2022 it hired 24,000 staff - yet, due to attrition and retirements, its net head count was up only 3,400 to 106,500.
Another shipbuilder, Huntington Ingalls Industries, is focusing on recruiting from apprentice schools and community colleges, according to CEO Chris Kastner.
"If people choose the career, they stay," he said. "There’s the high chance of attrition now with walk-in individuals."
Artillery shells are packed for shipping in Scranton, Pa. Photo: BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERSLockheed Martin VP of enterprise performance, Paula Hartley, says the space is "a tough place sometimes to recruit people to," referring to the company's facility in Camden, Arkansas - located around 100 miles from the state capital - which employs around 1,000 staff and plans to hire another 200 to make Javelin missiles and Himars rocket launchers. Despite holding job fairs and recruiting farther afield with sign-on bonuses and pay raises, they still have open positions posted since January.
Saab, the Swedish manufacturer, has taken to posting billboards, online ads, holding student job fairs, and a social media campaign.
Today Saab delivers Sweden’s new SIGINT-ship HMS Artemis to the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, FMV. Read the story here --> https://t.co/w1UeI3xAS8#proudshipbuilders pic.twitter.com/olKEmruNmG — Saab (@Saab) April 28, 2023
Imagine what would happen if peace broke out?
Can’t this be outsourced to China?
It would be cheaper and profits would be maximized. /s
Eisenhower was right.
“Weapons Makers Suffering Worker Shortages As Ukraine War Drives Demand”
Take that Putin!!! Who says we weren’t prepared to ramp up!
Dept. of Homeland Security, DOT, NHSTA recently came to a job fair at our local community college - made offers to all the kids who had studied machining, engine technology and drafting/construction - basically anyone who studied some math and was smart enough to enter a skilled trade (not the gender-studies retards - who all go into county social services)
With unlimited printed money and debt, Fed.gov it seems will always pay higher compared to the local, private diesel/engine repair shops, construction firms and machine shops - who are all scrambling for skilled workers.
Its simple “crowding out.”
And they wonder why there is no one to manufacture munitions.
Just another way bloated Fed.gov f***s the whole economy
The gods of war are suffering
Boo hoo
Stop supplying the entire world idiots
When we see the name, Tyler Durden, we’re reminded of the pro-Russia Zero Hedge and Daniel Ivandjiiski. And as for manufacturing, we don’t have any other sane choice than to reestablish a larger manufacturing base again. That’s the answer.
I’ll admit after I graduated back in 80 I went for the DoD affiliated contractor option and spent over 30 years doing work I now am ashamed of, frankly. Looking at today with what this government is doing pretty much devalues everything I did, or tried to do.
Today, I cannot in good conscience counsel any STEM graduate to go work for this corrupt, evil, freedom-taking government. They’d be better off learning a trade like plumbing and starting their own business.
Why does the Ukraine war remind me of an American Karen shouting at a former abusive husband of her girlfriend to give him a piece of her mind over the old divorce property settlement they have been fighting about while her girlfriend multitasks fighting with her husband and rummaging through Karen’s closet for cute new summer outfits?
My company saw where this was going and HR gave us "religious" exemptions. They didn't want to lose engineering and technical help from the highly experienced 50 - 65-year age group - that would have been corporate suicide, as witnessed by some of our competitors.
Every industry is having trouble recruiting.
Free government money destroyed the work ethic in many. Another huge problem is the required drug testing. It’s not that the companies don’t want to hire a recreational user. It’s that they don’t want to assume liability for any accident caused by an employee that might pee hot.
Until there’s a way to easily test for impairment, like a breathalyser, don’t expect to see a solution.
EC
bkmk
And yet the Libertarians among us keep trying to convince the populace that we need to legalize all drugs. They told us that if we legalized pot, it would destroy the black market that drives the cartels and the associated violence. Here in Colorado, pot was legalized and rather than make them obsolete, the cartels swept into the state to take advantage of the lax legal environment. It only made the problem much worse. That change also drew the hordes of druggies that now occupy the tent cities that are on every corner.
I despise Libertarians even more than I despise leftist democrats, because they are the enemy within. All they really are is “progressives” who don’t want the government taking their drug money.
As big a problem as work place injuries is absenteeism.
Drug users call come in late, call in sick and simply don’t show up at a much higher rate than those that don’t use drugs.
Today with skilled labor in short supply having an employee that does not show up is a major problem.
Do you fire the employee of suffer in silence as you shuffle other employees fill the gap and force others overtime on others?
Why does the Ukraine war remind me of an American Karen
—
Maybe that is because you have no real understanding of what is actually going on with the Russo-Ukrainian war?
A million deaths in the Middle East to make the world safe and profitable for Raytheon the first two decades of the century, the next two decades will see more deaths than that in Europe to make the world safe and profitable for General Dynamics.
If your economy is failing just start the Shootin’s and Killin’s. More killin’s fewer mouths to feed .
All the profits go to the elites and you can wipe out a slew of peasants.
Virtually every business has “help wanted” signs posted.
Only problem is the US has no vital national security interest in a war in which one bad guy kleptocrat is fighting another less bad kleptocrat in our proxy war sold as a war with a USSR that no longer exists. Looks like some on this board have bought that line.
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