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Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024

Rocketdyne Enacts Plan for Future

A recent job fair at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne was the most visible aspect of a recent hiring push to meet the needs for new and continuing NASA projects as well as groom talent to replace technical staff expecting to retire in coming years. The company continues to evaluate the resumes and information provided by the nearly 800 people who came out for the two-day job fair last month at its Canoga Park facility on De Soto Avenue. It was the first time in about 10 years the company has gone that route to find new workers. “We use every avenue we can to seek out the high quality talent,” said Steven Bouley, general manager of California operations of the aerospace manufacturer. Pratt & Whitney has two campuses in the San Fernando Valley, both in Canoga Park. Additional facilities are located in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. In July, the company was awarded a $1.2 billion contract for the new J-2X rocket used for future manned space missions; and in August the company announced a $975 million contract extension for maintenance on the space shuttle main engines through 2010, the year the shuttle retires. The company’s overall strategy is to redistribute employees to work on the shuttle and J-2X projects and have the new hires backfill other positions. It’s how Pratt & Whitney can be proactive and stay ahead of any expected vacant positions, Bouley said. The company has about 350 positions to fill, with between 150 and 200 being in the Valley. Of the 800 people attending the job fair, Bouley estimated that 250 to 300 were viable candidates. A number of offers have already been extended to some of the job seekers, he added. <!– Job Fair: Viable candidates found. –> Job Fair: Viable candidates found. The company, however, does not expect to fill all the positions with candidates attending the fair. Newspaper advertising, appearances at industry conferences, and close relationships with colleges and universities that have engineering and propulsion programs, including California State University, Northridge, bring in candidates as well. Pratt & Whitney’s hiring mode reflects the company’s commitment to the Valley and recognizes they know what they have here in terms of an available workforce, said Bruce Ackerman, president and CEO of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley. Aerospace work not only helps the company with the contract but benefits trickle down to secondary companies as well. “That payroll dollar can roll up two or three times in terms of support and subcontractors,” Ackerman said. Despite staggering losses in employees starting in 1990, aerospace remains among the top 10 employers in Los Angeles County, according to a study by the county’s economic development corporation. Aerospace jobs totaled 38,400 jobs in 2006, a drop of 14 percent from the 52,400 jobs in 2000, according to the study. The positions in Canoga Park are primarily in engineering, quality control and other technical-related fields, with fewer spots to fill in the unionized manufacturing side. In the short-term the new hires at Pratt & Whitney meet an immediate need while in the long-term addressing the challenge faced by many other aerospace companies how to replace their graying workforce. According to the Aerospace Commission, as much as 27 percent of aerospace workers are eligible to retire by 2008. The Aerospace Industries Association found that 52 percent of aerospace employees fell between the ages of 45 and 64 in 2005, the most recent year for which numbers are available. The numbers of younger workers coming up in the ranks, however, may not be enough to replace the retirees. In 2005, only 15 percent of the aerospace workforce was made up of 25- to 34-year-olds, a 2 percent increase from 2004 but significantly lower from the mid-1990s when that number was between 20 and 27 percent, according to the AIA. At Pratt & Whitney, half of the employment attrition is through retirement and there is a genuine risk of losing a huge amount of collective knowledge, Bouley said. Actions taken by the company include hiring retirees as consultants; developing mentoring programs in which the older workers impart their skills and knowledge to their younger colleagues; and documenting, either on paper or on video, that knowledge to create a retrievable archive. “We are trying to capture it before it walks out the door,” Bouley said.

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