IEEE-USA President's Column

AUGUST 2008

When the first baby boomers began to apply for Social Security benefits in late 2007, some people referred to it as the leading edge of a "silver tsunami" that could overwhelm the Social Security system. A similar tidal wave is set to strike the U.S. aerospace and defense (A&D) work force.

I learned more about the significant demand for engineers in A&D by participating in the INSIDE Aerospace Conference on 13-14 May in Arlington, Va. The major theme of the conference was the regeneration of the A&D professional work force. The first sentence of the executive summary went straight to the point, saying there were "more than 40,000 job openings, and competition for these individuals is fierce."

Difficulties filling A&D engineering jobs are easily identified: the "silver tsunami" of retirements, a potential shortfall of engineering graduates, and an inability to retain and inspire top new talent. Key elements of the situation are an inadequate number of engineering graduates, the requirement that most A&D engineers have a security clearance, a lack of diversity and past industry hiring-and-layoff practices.

(Readers who wish to see the report are encouraged to send me an e-mail at president@ieeeusa.org.)

I served on a conference panel entitled "Attracting Technical Professionals into Aerospace Careers," and much of my presentation was based on the 2007 work force Survey by Aviation Week. The publication's advisory board identified a number of technical challenges that the A&D sector faced. The list includes:

• New environmentally sound approaches to power and propulsion
• Exploration and "frontiering" to the depths of the universe
• Utilization of new advanced materials that surpass in strength, flexibility and resilience anything that exists today
• Building air traffic capacity in a system that operates far in excess of what anyone dreamed
• Use of software and electronics to animate, communicate, link and transfer information from space to land, among cultures and across time zones in ways never accomplished before.

There was a major concern that young people were not being attracted into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The board believes that the A&D industry needs to work to assure quality teaching of STEM subjects in the K-12 years. However, there was recognition that the quality of STEM graduates from the university systems was very high.

The study indicated that those seeking careers in A&D are looking for technological challenge, an environment that nurtures learning, ethical and responsible leadership, and ongoing career advancement. There is also increasing importance being placed on the location of the job.

The panel, whose other members were very knowledgeable representatives of their societies, was unable to make any definitive recommendations about how to attract technologists into A&D. We all agreed that one important ingredient was improving STEM education in the K-12 environment. One interesting but counter-intuitive fact that emerged from the conference is that in the A&D sector, retirements were not taking place as fast as had been predicted. This was attributed to employees working longer — beyond their normal retirement age.

After the panel session, I met with the person who led the work leading to the Aviation Week report. She told me that they had done an update of some of the 2007 results and that there were currently over 50,000 job openings in the A&D sector. She also noted that the major need was for mid-career people in the 30- to 50-year-old bracket. This probably is, at least partially, the result of the significant downturn in the defense budget in the 1990s after the Berlin Wall came down.

In my September president's column, I'll address the recommendations from the conference.

Please send comments to president@ieeeusa.org.

Updated:  01 October 2008
Contact: Chris McManes, c.mcmanes@ieee.org