Is the Defense Contracting Industry Shrinking or Growing in Nova? (McLean: sales, house)

[ddmhughes]

I left NoVa in 2007 and Defense Contractors were building new office building and hiring like crazy. Has this changed since Obama promised to reform the industry? Are defense contractors starting to be laid off or is it business as usual? What do you see happening now and/or in the next year or so?

[SteelCityRising]

Most DoD contractors I'm aware of are still hiring (albeit apparently more slowly than in years past). SAIC in particular is going to be booming soon. They have relocated their corporate headquarters to McLean from San Diego and plan to go on a hiring spree.

[ddmhughes]

Do you think most of them are hiring to replace workers that quit or do you think that the industry is actually expanding? I know that the turnover rate for most contractors is horrible.

Do you think they are replacing all the people that quit? I was thinking that not replacing everyone that quits would be a good way for a lot of them to avoid layoffs.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by ddmhughes

Do you think most of them are hiring to replace workers that quit or do you think that the industry is actually expanding? I know that the turnover rate for most contractors is horrible.

Do you think they are replacing all the people that quit? I was thinking that not replacing everyone that quits would be a good way for a lot of them to avoid layoffs.

I think working to improve rentention would be a better overall strategy for contractors to reduce the costs of training new individuals, assisting them in obtaining necessary security clearances, recruiting, etc., and then those cost savings could result in reduced layoffs. My Federal agency has high turnover in this region. Their solution? Throw money at the problem by offering a sign-on bonus. If you have a habitually higher-than-average turnover rate then perhaps the problem is systemic, and an employer should try to find out just what, exactly, is making so many leave.

[ddmhughes]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

I think working to improve rentention would be a better overall strategy for contractors to reduce the costs of training new individuals, assisting them in obtaining necessary security clearances, recruiting, etc., and then those cost savings could result in reduced layoffs. My Federal agency has high turnover in this region. Their solution? Throw money at the problem by offering a sign-on bonus. If you have a habitually higher-than-average turnover rate then perhaps the problem is systemic, and an employer should try to find out just what, exactly, is making so many leave.

Improving turnover rates definetly would benefit any company. I work in HR and it is very very expensive to hire someone and the more skiled they are the more expensive it is.

What I was trying to say in my post is that a lot of Defense Contractors may not have to implament layoff just because so many people leave anyway. If 100 people leave an office every year then they may only hire 90 people to replace them. If the industry shrinks they would have less people to find contracts for avoiding a layoff.

[CAVA1990]

If Obama is doing anything about it, I'm not seeing it. Perhaps this involves future weapons systems. Existing business is humming along just fine.

[normie]

Originally Posted by ddmhughes

Do you think most of them are hiring to replace workers that quit or do you think that the industry is actually expanding?

I don't know for sure, but with the economy the way it is, I don't think as many people are quitting jobs these days. (I know a lot of people who want to quit their jobs, but that's a different thing...)

[mac10]

Unless you are working on a program directly supporting a government customer, most defense contracting is project based. If someone quits, most employers will try to fill the position. First because they need to finish the project on time, and second because it is a billable position (if cost-plus contract). I have seen very few engineers laid off. The ones that are have found positions relatively easy. There are fewer people moving around, but still the qualified people have found jobs.

Don't really know if defense contracting is actually shrinking, however it seems as though intel contracting has increased.

[GoHokiesGo]

My company has not done any layoffs during the economic turmoil, their cut-back was to suspend their 401k contribution match due to the stock values going down. Everything else is business as usual, and sales are increasing at higher rates than usual actually.

We also have a 99% employee retention rate, which is unheard of in this industry. I think maybe 2 people have left our office in the 2 years I've been here.

[Caladium]

Last year we were very worried that my husband might be laidoff. But now he's been put on a new project and things are looking very definite. Last winter I was spending a lot of time on the Frugal Living forum, trying to figure out how to save as much money as possible just in case my husband got laid off and was out of work for a long time. Not that we were struggling, we had plenty of savings, but the country seemed about to go into a depression and we didn't know what to expect.

This winter things have really changed. Myhusband's job is much more secure. In fact, we've decided to buy a house in Cascades. We're selling the house we have now to my son, who's getting married. As much as we've loved our starter home and our neighborhood, it's exciting to be moving up (and a smart time to buy). A large factor in this decision is the realization that the defense industry is going to stay strong for at least another 3-4 years.