It’s been a tough year for the civilian aviation industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but several area companies with ties to the defense sector were able to boost their local worker counts.
Employment at the area’s 26 largest aerospace and defense companies dropped almost 3.5% to 22,880 this year, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
This year’s employee figures include several thousand area workers who have been furloughed as a result of the pandemic, but didn’t have their positions cut outright.
The top three on the list are unchanged from last year: Boeing Co., Safran and Panasonic Avionics Corp.
Boeing retains an estimated 6,600 employees in OC, the same as 2019.
Since last year’s rankings, Boeing added several hundred area workers as the result of its acquisition on EnCore Group, a Huntington Beach-based maker of plane galleys and seats for airlines.
It also, like many in the industry, has subsequently made cuts to its local operations over the course of 2020 amid the slumping civilian aviation industry. The firm has not disclosed the exact amount of local cuts it has made this year.
A spokesperson for Boeing said last week the company does not break down job reductions by location, but instead referred to CEO Dave Calhoun’s July 29 statement that the company may need to “further assess the size of our workforce” beyond a previously announced 10% net reduction in its companywide employment counts.
The Business Journal last month reported on Boeing selling off an additional 21-acre section of its sprawling but shrinking operations in Huntington Beach for an industrial development.
Furloughs, Layoffs
Local units of French aerospace giant Safran, which have operations in several OC cities, had an estimated 2,600 employees, down 200 from last year.
Filings from California’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification system for job reduction postings indicate Safran units have put 345 workers on temporary layoff since June. The company said in April it had laid off 83 employees at two sites in Orange County and furloughed an unspecified number of local workers due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Safran Passenger Solutions has kept essential operations open at its Brea, California facility since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” spokesman Christelle Kinkead told the Business Journal on July 28. “Production is ongoing at all Safran Cabin sites in Orange County.”
Safran Cabin makes aircraft interiors while its Safran Passenger Solutions affiliate makes passenger comfort systems and includes an in-flight entertainment unit.
Lake Forest-based Panasonic Avionics, another area maker of in-flight entertainment systems for airlines, fell to 2,200 employees this year from 2,352 last year, but retained the No. 3 spot on the list.
Panasonic Avionics said in April it had implemented workforce reductions and furloughs, and put in place “temporary reduced work schedules across its U.S. and global operations” for the employees who remained.
The company is moving its local base of operations to Irvine over the next year or so, officials said last month.
Irvine-based Thales Avionics Inc., whose InFlyt Experience unit also makes airliner entertainment systems, dipped to an estimated 1,100 OC employees from 1,300 last year. The company retained its hold on the No. 7 place on the Business Journal list.
Defense Gains
Companies whose business included military and defense generally moved up.
Defense giant Raytheon Technologies Corp. (NYSE: RTX) in Fullerton has gotten a nice headcount bounce from a recent merger.
The Waltham, Mass.-based company merged with United Technologies Corp. in April, boosting the local headcount to an estimated 2,000 from 1,300 last year. That gives Raytheon the No. 4 spot on the list.
Area units now tallied under the Raytheon umbrella include Collins Aerospace in Brea, which was created in 2018 by bringing together Rockwell Collins and UTC Aerospace Systems. Collins Aerospace counted 917 employees last year in OC.
Meggitt Defense Systems Inc. in Irvine moved up two places to No. 11 despite a headcount drop of about 14% to 540 local employees.
Palmer Luckey’s Anduril Industries moved up to the No. 15 place (see article, page 3) while nano-satellite maker Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc. in Irvine added 17 employees to reach No. 19 from No. 26.
Others moving up in the rankings were aerospace and defense components maker Ducommun Inc. in Santa Ana from No. 22 last year to No. 21 this year; and military testing and measurement equipment maker Marvin Test Solutions in Irvine, which went from No. 30 last year to No. 22 this year.
