Jim Stecker has an old-school work ethic.
He’s been an engineer at Boeing Co. for nearly 30 years, has worked on a number of Boeing’s projects,from commercial planes to the International Space Station,and has moved within the company from Seattle to Orange County.
When Stecker retires soon at age 65,10 years longer than the company’s allowed age for benefits to kick in,Boeing will have a hard time finding a replacement with the experience or dedication.
And Stecker is just one of the many baby boomers getting ready to turn in their punch cards.
About 20% of Boeing’s workforce is eligible to retire now, which will nearly double in the next five years as the baby boomer generation matures.
Boeing is the largest aerospace and defense employer in the county with about 9,700 workers in Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Seal Beach and Cypress.
The so-called “brain drain” is something the company has spent years trying to avoid.
“Whenever you have someone at the company a long time it happens,” said Nan Bouchard, program manager for Boeing’s C3 Networks in Huntington Beach.
It could take another 10 to 15 years to hit, according to Bouchard. The company is ramping up recruiting to avoid any crunch.
“All of our programs are stable right now,” Bouchard said.
Although many workers have stayed longer than expected, Boeing loses 2% of its workforce to retirement each year. That is likely to grow at some point in the foreseeable future.
It’s difficult for the company to know exactly what to expect for retirement schedules because the company can’t legally question employees about it.
Old Average
The average age of a Boeing employee is 47. The average age of retirement is 61, and 62 for engineers. Boeing gives workers the option of adopting a part-time schedule instead of fully retiring.
Potential skill gaps could be in engineering and information to handling business and manufacturing, according to the company.
Most of Boeing’s efforts to remedy the problem have gone toward educating and recruiting workers.
One of the biggest challenges that the aerospace and defense industry is facing is that the U.S. isn’t graduating as many engineers as it needs, according to Bouchard.
Countries such as Japan, China and India have been producing a lot more candidates specializing in math and science. Boeing hasn’t been able to tap into them because of security clearance is-sues, Bouchard said.
Boeing has been trying to reverse the situation by partnering with local schools to spur interest in the sciences, maintaining relationships with universities and professors as well as trying to be more “hip” to new graduates.
“We’re constantly monitoring trends,” said Diana Peterson, director of strategic workforce planning at Boeing. “Our priorities change often.”
Attracting the latest crops of college graduates has been a key focus for the company.
Boeing is targeting the tech-savvy youth through social networks, blogs and podcasts.
“Their demands are higher as they have a thirst for quick answers and useful information,” said Cindy Wall, a Boeing spokeswoman.
The company also continues to recruit with its traditional scholarship and internship programs.
Many engineers already are working with school summer programs to foster interest in the field, according to Stecker. And some of its engineers have shown interest in teaching in local schools when they retire.
The company often pairs older engineers with younger ones to pass on the knowledge of programs, according to Bouchard.
Boeing also tries to recruit workers at the mid-career level, but competition to hire engineers in the county has been fierce with a number of companies struggling to fill such positions.
The county’s second largest aerospace and defense employer, Cleveland-based Parker Hannifin Corp., has been looking to fill 130 positions.
Thales-Raytheon Systems Co. in Fullerton, a venture of Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon Co. and France’s Thales, has been short 120 jobs.
Management jobs lost to retirement will be the hardest to replace, according to Stecker.
“You just can’t learn how to be a program manager in school,” he said. “You need a lot of knowledge about how the company works.”
Boeing’s local workforce shrunk by about 7% during the past year partly because the company moved some of its missile production to Alabama. There were also layoffs from its Space and Intelligence Systems program that makes satellites in Seal Beach.
Without the loss of Boeing’s jobs in the county, the local aerospace and defense workforce gained 2% to 1.3 million jobs during the past year.
