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Arlington, Va. – Government and industry must work together to take dramatic steps to address a developing crisis – a possible severe shortage of qualified workers in aerospace, AIA President and CEO John W. Douglass said.

“It’s time to act boldly,’’ Douglass said. “If we do not head off this problem the results could be damaging to America’s national security and economic prosperity.’’

Industry and government representatives focused on the workforce challenge last week. AIA teamed up with the National Defense Industrial Association and the Defense Department for a workshop aimed at devising an action-based strategy for addressing critical workforce issues. The event, the National Security Workforce: Challenges and Solutions Workshop, preceded a strategic planning meeting with representatives from industry and government.

Mike Wynne, acting undersecretary of defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, warned of dire consequences if the workforce pattern continues. “We really want to remain the beacon to the world on science and technology,’’ Wynne said. “We feel like that may be at risk.’’

For a variety of reasons the U.S. aerospace workforce has seen a decline in numbers coupled with fewer students entering the technical field. American companies are losing talent, as 40 percent of students earning engineering and science doctorates in U.S. colleges and universities are foreign. The workforce is also aging, with 27 percent of those in the industry eligible to retire by 2008. Total aerospace employment hit a 50-year low in February. Even though jobs figures have started bouncing back from that point, with about 25,000 added since February, the talent pipeline is not in line with what will be needed in the future. NDIA conducted a survey in November that shows that almost 9 percent of all funded science and engineering positions in the aerospace and defense workforce are currently going unfilled due to a lack of qualified candidates.

AIA, NDIA and others involved lauded Congressman Vernon Ehlers of Michigan for recently filing a bill that would create an Interagency Aerospace Task Force to craft a specific plan to address the crisis. Such a plan was recommended by the Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry last year.

Some concrete solutions to come from the brainstorming about the workforce problem:

• Launching a national public awareness media campaign on aerospace careers, possibly based on a branding of the president’s Moon, Mars and Beyond vision for space flight in the tradition of the Apollo missions.
• Developing a comprehensive supply and demand tracking capability for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and critical Foreign Language workers
• Chartering an organization to bring coherence to workforce activities.
• Immediately establishing one central agency for all security clearance investigations, a goal met last week with the signing of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.

--AIA--

Visit AIA’s homepage at www.aia-aerospace.org
P.A. Rel. 2004-42
12.22.04

Contact: Matt Grimison, AIA
(703) 358-1076
matt.grimison@aia-aerospace.org