Southern California: Aerospace Capital of the World (Los Angeles, San Diego: real estate, 2009)

[bhcompy]

well it depends on what you're doing. if you're an engineer or mechanic(though not general aviation), sure. if you're a project manager? an auditor? soft skills type people.. you're pretty much screwed

[HSVbulldawg]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

well it depends on what you're doing. if you're an engineer or mechanic(though not general aviation), sure. if you're a project manager? an auditor? soft skills type people.. you're pretty much screwed

Auditors screwed? Accounting = soft skill = screwed? Are you kidding me? No matter what the economy is doing, audits are still required for public companies. In fact, audits are required for many private companies as well. Taxes still need to be calculated, and the books still have to be kept.

Financial analysts, marketing, etc may go away, but those areas of business are not the same as accounting. You can't group all soft skills together.

[bhcompy]

i didnt say accountant, im talking about(generally) people auditing projects with subcontractors, with the armed forces, and with the government. making sure things are on schedule, costs are kept in check, new problems are addressed, all parties are informed of issues, etc

[HSVbulldawg]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

i didnt say accountant, im talking about(generally) people auditing projects with subcontractors, with the armed forces, and with the government. making sure things are on schedule, costs are kept in check, new problems are addressed, all parties are informed of issues, etc

Ok that makes more sense. Yeah, you're prob right about that.

[Charles]

This is good news for those of us under 50. Why? Because as the over 50 guys retire, there would likely be jobs for us to move into.

As bad as the economy is now, it's not a bad time to be an engineer, in SoCal, or anywhere else. And, it looks like it's going to get even better.

"According to a recent study by the Aerospace Industry Association, retirement may be a problem across the industry. Of the almost 655,000 aerospace workers - 110,000 are engineers - 26 percent are over 50. "

from

Marshall workers' average age drops - al.com

Jobs go begging at Northrop Grumman - Los Angeles Times

[bhcompy]

Granted as they push Social Security ages back every year they need to be looking at "over 65" for retiring folks rather than "over 50"

[Charles]

You know, I may have been a little presumptuous about my previous post...I mean the age thing is good, but I really don't know for certain how things are going out there. My friend in fact got layed off from Northrop Grumman in Azusa.

I haven't read too many bad things about the health Southern California Aerospace lately and I haven't read any posts on the aerospace job situation from the (you) guys in the trenches,

So, if any of you are in the trenches, could you comment on your feelings of the aerospace industry out there?
Do you feel less secure than say, one year ago?
Are there rumors of layoffs?
Are you hearing any good news about contracts?
Are you hearing (like I am here in Huntsville) that big companies are sort of waiting on what comes out of the Obama administration?
Some of the programs in Southern California are satellites, Future Combat Systems, Missile Defense, NASA programs (Ares for example), launch systems, and many others.

[bhcompy]

I have family in satellite related fields and they're holding their breath to see what is cut from the defense budget with Obama in the White House. He's already stated he's interested in merging NASA(civilian) with the DoD(military) space program in the Pentagon, so that effects some people out here in many ways. Two of which are manned space exploration and academic research, which are high on the NASA agenda and at the bottom of the DoD agenda.

My grandmother was let go from TRW back after Clinton took office. She was in what became GPS and satellite missile defense systems(which still isn't fully realized), and those were areas cut in the defense budget at the time. This, of course, is what current people fear is going to happen.

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

i didnt say accountant, im talking about(generally) people auditing projects with subcontractors, with the armed forces, and with the government. making sure things are on schedule, costs are kept in check, new problems are addressed, all parties are informed of issues, etc

I too, worked in the aerospace & defense field for over 20 yrs. My perspective is that the people you mentioned above can do what they do moving from projects to projects. It is the engineers with specific skills, e.g., circuit design vs. mechanical actuators, are more difficult to find new work if it does not required their specific skills.

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

My grandmother was let go from TRW back after Clinton took office. She was in what became GPS and satellite missile defense systems(which still isn't fully realized), and those were areas cut in the defense budget at the time. This, of course, is what current people fear is going to happen.

Back in the early 1980s, we had an older engineer from Rockwell joined us in a small company. I asked him why leave a big company like Rockwell to come work for a small company like ours? This was when President Jimmy Carter had canceled the B-1 bomber program. Rockwell was laying off its engineers, so stress was high at work. He said that he got tired of hearing the sound of bodies dropping on the floor *thump* at work!!!