EMPLOYMENT IN the US aircraft industry is at its lowest point in nearly two decades. It is likely to reach a new record low, possibly this year, as companies continue to shed staff, warns the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
Direct employment in aircraft, missiles and space manufacturing slumped to below 590,000 in 1994, down from more than 900,000 at the height of the boom in 1989. With numbers still falling, the workforce is on course to dip below the 560,000 low point, reached during the 1970s following the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
The grim predictions come in the latest annual employment survey conducted by the AIA Aerospace Research Center. The study points to the steady decline in US defence-procurement spending, which has virtually halved from its peak of $80 billion in the late 1980s and is expected to level out at around $30 billion for the rest of the decade.
Civil aerospace is expected to show some employment growth as aircraft ordering returns, but will not be enough to offset the defence decline, says the AIA, especially in the light of fierce foreign competition in US domestic and export markets.
The AIA goes on to say that the US aerospace industry as a whole (including areas such as avionics) has shed more than 500,000 jobs in the past five years.
In 1994, companies shed 80,000 jobs taking the total down to 827,000. The AIA estimates that the workforce is due to fall by another 53,000 again this year, boosted by Boeing's recent decision to raise the number of layoffs.
Production workers and administrative staff appear to have suffered the brunt of the squeeze, with technicians and engineers suffering marginally lower percentage declines.
Source: Flight International