Local aerospace and defense contractors held decently against a weakened economy as they posted worker losses that were slightly better than the county’s employment numbers.
The total worker count for the largest 25 employers in the industry fell 4% to 25,320 for the 12 months through May, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
Without Boeing, which dominates the list with more than a third of the total workers, the count would have fallen 3% to 16,109.
Overall, the county lost 71,100 nonfarm jobs in May compared to a year earlier, a 4.7% decline.
The unemployment rate here was 8.6% in May, up from a revised 8.4% in April and 4.7% a year earlier.
No. 1 Chicago-based Boeing Co. shed 5% of its workforce, or 480 jobs, to 9,211.
Six of the companies on the list saw gains, nine saw losses and two were flat. Figures for eight of the companies were Bus-iness Journal estimates.
The companywide count for the aerospace and defense contractors,which accounts for workers outside the county,fell 6% to 1.35 million.
In the past several years local Pentagon contractors have benefited from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of them report stability this year as contracts doled out from the previous administration are carried out.
Some are concerned about next year, as many still are feeling out the Obama administration’s defense policy (see story, page 18).
Commercial plane contractors also saw strong orders during the past several years from a boost in demand from a growing global economy.
But that business began to slow down last year with the worldwide recession and was a driving force behind jobs lost among contractors.
Boeing
Boeing’s employees,primarily engineers,are in Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Seal Beach and Cypress. Nearly all of Boeing’s work done in the county is for the military.
The company attributes its losses to retirements, moves within the company and adjustments for programs transitioning from development to production.
This is the second year in a row Boeing lost jobs. Last year it shed 7% of its workers.
It also is known to sizable shifts in workers due to its fluctuating contracts.
The company said it had been planning for a flattening of the defense budget and said it would offer less expensive weapons created from existing technology.
The companywide employee count for Boeing grew 2% to 159,161 in the past year.
Locally, Boeing is the county’s fourth largest employer in any industry, according to Business Journal data.
Its Future Combat Systems project to overhaul the Army’s communication system is one of its largest programs here and will be cut down in size with next year’s Pentagon budget.
Last year it lost jobs here as it moved some of its missile work to Huntsville, Ala. It also let go of workers from its Space and Intelligence Systems operation in Seal Beach after losing a government contract.
The year before it also lost several hundred local jobs when it moved its United Launch Alliance, a venture with Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp., to Denver.
The biggest percentage loser on the list was No. 11 Ceradyne Inc. in Costa Mesa, which saw its worker count fall 32% to 635, dropping it two spots on the list.
The maker of bulletproof vests for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan has seen a decrease in orders from previous years with less fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ceradyne has said it is in the process of cutting its workforce by nearly 600 jobs, mostly in its bulletproof vest operations in California and Kentucky.
This year, it laid off 40 from its headquarters. Another 70 were let go from its Irvine operation where it makes vests.
So far, it said it reduced its total headcount 17% out of the expected 33% to 2,095.
Ceradyne has been looking to expand into other uses for its chemically made ceramics, such as the solar panel industry.
No. 2 Portland, Ore.-based Precision Cast-parts Corp., which makes fasteners for military planes, was estimated to be flat at about 1,800 jobs.
Precision Castparts operates locally with Air Industries Corp. in Garden Grove, SPS Technologies in Anaheim, Cherry Aerospace in Santa Ana and Shur-Lok Co. in Irvine.
Rounding Out the List
No. 3 Parker Aerospace in Irvine posted a 3% drop in workers to 1,740.
The operation is part of Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin Corp.’s air and fuel division, which makes parts for fueling systems on jets.
Last year Parker Aerospace won a $3.5 billion contract to make its steering controls for Montreal-based Bombardier Inc.’s new wide-body jet.
It also does work for military jets such as the F-22 and F-35 fighter planes.
No. 6 Rockwell Collins Inc. shed 11% of its local employees to 1,037. The company makes aircraft cabin controls and cockpit parts.
No. 7 Panasonic Avionics Corp. in Lake Forest, a direct competitor of Rockwell Collins, had an 8% gain in jobs to 1,022.
No. 8 Alcoa Inc.’s Alcoa Fastening Systems, which makes fastening systems for planes, shed about 50 jobs at its Fullerton location.
The company in recent years had trouble finding machinists but more recently has felt the effects of the commercial aviation slowdown.
The biggest percentage gainer was No. 18 Airborne Systems in Santa Ana. It grew workers by 23% to 344. It kept its ranking from last year.
The company, which makes parachutes for the military, has grown sales 45% during the past three years. Its T-11 parachute system is slated to replace more than 50,000 of the Army’s current standard parachutes, which have been in use since the 1950s.
No. 19 GE Aviation in Santa Ana, part of General Electric Co., shed 14% of its workforce to 300 workers, falling from its No. 16 spot a year earlier.
No. 23 Synchronous Aerospace Group in Santa Ana lost 13% of its workers, which now stand at 184. Earlier in the year it bought Tulsa, Okla.-based Helicomb International Inc.
No. 25 Carson-based Ducommun AeroStruc-tures had a 19% gain to 117 workers at its location in Orange.
