Employment at Orange County’s largest aerospace and defense contractors was about flat over the past 12 months, an improvement from slight job loss last year.
The 24 largest companies in both sectors added 147 positions for a total of 23,053 jobs here.
The minor gain was the fourth straight year of alternating job gains and losses. The companies on last year’s list shed 64 jobs, a decline of less than 1%. That followed a gain of 7.6% a year earlier when the sector snapped a five-year streak of job cuts here.
The companies make airplanes, systems and parts for commercial and military aircraft, among other products.
Two are based in OC, and the rest have subsidiary offices and significant operations here.
Companywide employment for the group increased nearly 2% to 937,888 jobs as the aerospace industry started to rebound to meet growing global demand after a tough stretch in the recession.
Nine companies added employees to their OC operations, and five made cuts. Two were flat from a year ago, and eight others were Business Journal estimates.
The list ranks the companies by number of local employees.
Boeing
• Perennial No. 1, Chicago-based Boeing Co., shed 290 positions, bringing its workforce to 6,600, down 4.2% from a year ago.
Some of the cuts were at the Seal Beach and Huntington Beach hubs of Boeing’s Space and Intelligence Systems unit, among the Southern California locations where Boeing said it would trim 250 to 300 workers last year.
The El Segundo-based unit is one of the largest satellite makers in the world.
“2013 employment levels decreased due to continuing pressure from declining U.S. defense spending and adjustments to Boeing commercial airplanes production levels,” said spokesperson Brittany Kuhn.
Boeing’s local employment has fallen by more than 3,000 in recent years as the company consolidates operations around the country to improve manufacturing efficiencies and cut costs, but the company continues to add employees in several of its local units.
The Business Journal this month reported Boeing will add about 1,000 engineering positions in Seal Beach and Long Beach over the next two years to meet global demand for aircraft production and related support. It also plans to move its operations center from Seattle to one of the two cities.
Last year, the company added about 500 employees to a design center; they work on airplanes that are out of production but still flying.
• No. 3, Lake Forest-based Panasonic Avionics Corp., added 127 employees for a total of 1,670, up 8.2% from a year ago.
The company’s latest contracts include outfitting Icelandair’s fleet of 21 Boeing 757s with weather data aggregation, GPS and more; as well as providing wireless connectivity for Aerolineas Argentinas, a first for the national airline of Argentina.
The dominate market-share leader in IFE systems offers the world’s only broadband connectivity service, which has helped the company add to its list of more than 200 airline customers.
“That’s one of the drivers for hiring,” a company spokesperson said. “That’s a big uptake for airlines.”
Thales Avionics
• Panasonic Avionics’ Irvine-based rival, Thales Avionics Inc., maintained its No. 8 ranking, adding 91 employees for a total of 951, up 10.6% from a year ago.
Thales, part of French electronics company Thales Group, has been on a local and companywide hiring push as it rolls out its latest generation IFE system, the Android-based TopSeries Avant. Dominique Giannoni in July took over the top post to pilot the next leg of growth and innovation. Its local operation could be in line for more growth this year when its $400 million buy of JetBlue’s Florida-based in-flight entertainment unit, LiveTV, finalizes.
• U.K.-based Meggitt PLC moved up one spot to No. 11 after adding 38 employees for a total 576, up 7.1%. Its sensing system unit drove the growth, adding 57 workers, which offset 19 employees shed from its defense systems unit. The sensing system unit specializes in making and testing sensors for the aerospace, military, automotive and industrial industries.
The unit has its largest U.S. operation in Irvine following last year’s consolidation that rolled up its San Juan Capistrano and Londonderry, N.H., outfits into a new 190,000-square-foot factory just south of Jamboree and the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway.
