Layoffs Remove The Young And The Restless, Leaving Older, Experienced Hands On The Line

Layoffs that seem to solve financial problems for aircraft manufacturers now could come back to haunt them in a matter of just a few years. That's the word from industry experts who say, because most layoffs are being determined by a worker's seniority, younger workers are getting the axe, leaving more experienced -- but aging -- veterans in place. What happens when, in only a few years, those veterans begin to retire?

"We're very concerned," said Aerospace Industries Association spokeswoman Alexis Allen, in an interview with the Wichita Eagle. In the next five years, 27 percent of the aerospace manufacturing workforce will be eligible to retire, she said. When that happens, "our companies are going to be looking to hire, and it's a question if they will be able to find the workers they need," Ms. Allen said.

Already, the workforces at major aircraft manufacturers is much older than the national average. At Boeing's Wichita (KS) facility, the average worker is 47 years old. At Raytheon, the average age is 45. At Cessna, the median age is right around 40.

What, Me Worry?

Boeing spokesman Dick Ziegler told the Eagle the aging of aerospace workers isn't an immediate concern. "But we consider it a fairly serious and important issue to look at," he said.

The Wichita Eagle points out:

• How to revitalize an aging aerospace work force has become a nationwide priority. Consider:
• The industry has lost 642,000 jobs -- more than 49 percent -- since its 1989 peak of 1.3 million.
• Thirteen percent of the work force -- 106,000 workers -- have been laid off since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
• The average age of an aerospace production worker in commercial aviation is 44.
• About 27 percent of all aerospace manufacturing employees will be eligible for retirement by 2008.
• Nationwide, the average age of the aerospace work force has been slowly rising for the past decade.

For example, the number of workers ages 25 to 34 in the U.S. aerospace work force in 1992 represented 27 percent of the total, according to the aerospace association. In 2001, the latest figures available, the number had declined to 13 percent.

The number of workers ages 45 to 54, meanwhile, increased from 23 percent of the work force to 32 percent.

Recent layoffs have only fueled the pending crisis. "Part of the dynamics of any healthy company is the transfer of knowledge and experience and wisdom from the older people to the young people," said Stan Sorcher, labor representative for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, Boeing's second-largest union.

Without young people, "the transfer never takes place."

FMI: www.wichita.edu