The Coalition to Engage Technical, Engineering and Maintenance Professionals
Choose Aerospace is a partnership of aerospace stakeholders, joined together to address one of the biggest threats to continued industry growth: the availability of a diverse, qualified technical workforce.
The purpose of the campaign is to unite companies, associations, labor unions and educational institutions, to spur interest in aerospace careers, and identify and implement solutions to the aerospace workforce shortage.
The Numbers
The industry is facing a massive technical workforce shortage, as evidenced by government and industry reports and studies. Some include:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates 5% growth for aircraft mechanic and technical careers in the next decade. The Bureau projects 12,400 new technical job openings in the next ten years.
Airbus projects a need for 630,000 new technicians worldwide in the next 20 years—up from the company’s 2017-2036 estimate of 550,000 new technicians.
Boeing’s needs estimate is even higher; the manufacturer says that the commercial, helicopter and business aviation industries combined will require 754,000 new technicians by 2037, with a quarter of the demand coming from North America.
An Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) report estimates that there are more than 2,500 unfilled technical positions in the U.S., costing the repair station industry upwards of $642.5 million in annual revenue.
A Helicopter Association International study projects a shortage of 7,649 pilots and 40,613 certificated aviation mechanics in the U.S. by 2036.
A report provided by Oliver Wyman, a technical consulting group, forecasts that demand for aviation maintenance technicians will outstrip supply by 2022.
A 2017 ATEC report found that mechanics are retiring faster than they are being replaced. New entrants make up 2% of the population annually, while 30% of the workforce is at or near retirement age. And while AMTS capacity increased by 2% in the last year, enrollment decreased by 2%.