Boeing Co.’s Huntington Beach-based Delta rocket workers may not need to call a real estate agent after all.
As part of a planned satellite combination with Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing is set to shift workers to Denver, where the Boeing-Lockheed venture will be based.
But aerospace workers are a hot commodity.
Raytheon Co. has hired about 500 workers at its Space and Airborne Systems division in El Segundo this year. It wants to hire another 700 workers by the end of 2005.
Employees at Boeing’s rocket division are prime prospects for Raytheon’s El Segundo space unit, which has about 7,000 workers in all.
“We’ve been doing strategic hiring, targeted outreach to those Boeing employees,” said Sabrina Steele, spokeswoman for Raytheon.
Raytheon’s recruiting efforts include newspaper advertisements in the Orange County Register and job fairs in OC.
Competition for skilled aerospace engineers is stiff. Boeing itself has been known to hire skywriters to fly the beaches to lure candidates.
General spending on military weapons, planes and other gear, plus the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have spurred defense-related hiring for a couple of years.
Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc., which makes body armor for the Army, has boosted its local workforce by about 30% to 814 in the past year.
The commercial aerospace market has rebounded in the past year. Airbus and Boeing’s commercial units have stepped up spending after nabbing new airplane orders.
The growth has buoyed commercial aerospace contractors such as Santa Ana-based Textron Fastening Systems, which added 70 workers this year, a 25% increase.
“People are looking to hire,” said Christopher Allen, director of public affairs for the California Manufacturing Technology Consulting group in Gardena. “There are very good jobs available in the industry right now.”
Companies are particularly interested in workers who already live or work in OC, Allen said.
Workers moving from outside Southern California face steep housing costs in the region. It can dissuade them from making the move or prove expensive for the aerospace companies to hire.
In El Segundo, Raytheon is designing sensors for space and aircraft systems,a hot area for government contractors.
Sensors Unit Growing
Raytheon’s Space and Airbornne Systems unit posted revenue of about $4.2 billion last year, up from $3 billion in 2002. The operation accounted for about 20% of Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon’s overall sales in 2004.
About half of the 700 open jobs at Raytheon are for engineers. The rest are for finance, accounting and other positions.
Raytheon is looking to Boeing in Huntington Beach for the engineering jobs. Boeing’s Delta rockets have sent spy and communications satellites, among others, into space.
The hiring grab comes after Boeing announced in early May it would combine production, engineering, test and launch operations at its Delta site with Lockheed’s Atlas rocket operations.
The Denver venture, called United Launch Alliance, is slated to launch in two years.
The venture was touted as a way to cut costs for national security and NASA programs.
It’s also seen as a bid to strengthen operations for the space businesses that were hit hard by sluggish demand from commercial customers.
Boeing is hoping employees stay in its fold. It has about 950 workers in the Huntington Beach Delta rocket operation.
The company declined to say how many would be offered jobs in Denver or at other Boeing units.
“Boeing would like to keep members of the Delta team together and encourage them to make the move to Denver,” the company said in a statement. “While we have some people who cannot move, we are encouraged by the large number of employees that are open to the possibility. Each employee must make a personal choice.
“We will make every effort to find work within Boeing for those employees who do not make the transition to Denver,” Boeing said.
Security Issues
Boeing employees have a big thing going for them: security clearances.
It’s critical that an aerospace company bidding on a military contract has enough employees with security credentials. The process for getting security clearance can take up to a year to finish, depending on how high the clearance level is.
Many of the Boeing employees have high-level security clearances, said Kathy Carolus-Ford, director of talent acquisition and development for Raytheon in El Segundo.
Boeing workers also bring technical expertise in rocket technology, which should translate well to El Segundo.
“If some of those Boeing employees don’t move, they certainly have some skills that are applicable to the work we have,” Carolus-Ford said.
She declined to speculate how many of the open jobs might be filled by Boeing workers.
Not Always Rivals
Raytheon and Boeing aren’t always in competition, Carolus-Ford said. In the defense industry, companies may battle for one contract and then work together on the next.
The same goes for hiring.
“At times, we partner with them to help place people if it works out,” she said.
Not everyone is actively recruiting Boeing employees.
“Northrop has a very active recruiting program,” said Bob Bishop, a spokesman with Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Space Technology unit in El Segundo. “Space Technology has not, however, targeted any specific groups of potential employees in the Huntington Beach area.”
At Parker Aerospace in Irvine,second to Boeing in OC aerospace employees,the company is looking to hire.
But the operation, a unit of Parker Hannifin Corp. that makes flight controls and hydraulic systems, is looking for engineers that specialize in manufacturing, spokeswoman Cheryl Flohr said.
Boeing’s Delta satellite workers aren’t seen as a good fit by Parker.
Raytheon is looking beyond Huntington Beach to hire. Carolus-Ford has heard there could be some layoffs at a San Diego company.
“They’re going to be downsizing 100 folks or so,” she said. “They’re also (security) cleared people so we’re going to be looking into that.”
