Southern California: Aerospace Capital of the World (Los Angeles, Glendale: lease, taxes)

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by Charles

"The [unmanned aircraft, drone] industry is centered in Southern California, a testament to the region's rich aerospace history and the skilled workforce that arose with it."

from

Drones create a buzz in Southern California aerospace industry - latimes.com

And they're already starting to flee Southern California because it's too expensive. Boeing recently announced that it was relocating Frontier Systems, who was mentioned in the article, to Arizona to cut costs. Maybe they need a better editor.

[Charles]

The bad news

Boeing restructuring Military Aircraft division, job cuts likely at local facilities - ContraCostaTimes.com

County Leaders Fret Northrop

and the good news

Demand For Talent Grows Despite Shrinking Economy | AVIATION WEEK

And the super rumor:

Aerospace industry speculates over Boeing, Grumman merger - The Denver Post

[Mike121]

Originally Posted by Charles

and the good news

Demand For Talent Grows Despite Shrinking Economy | AVIATION WEEK

The money quote in that article, for me, is

Larsen is working closely with a former business president, Jennifer Pollino, to make dramatic changes. Similarly, Rick Stephens, senior vice president of human resources and administration at Boeing, is working with his staff to create long-range personnel plans. "We, as an industry, have become program-centric to the point that it is difficult for employees to transition to a new position," he says.

That is the great truth here. When you work at big aerospace, you work on a project, and when it wraps up, you're as likely to be laid off as you are to find a new position in the company. Big aerospace is always complaining that their young employees have no committment, but, then they lay off some or all of them them at the end of every project, while leaving the layer of management untouched.

But it surprises me that an HR VP at Boeing now sees that as a disadvantage, when they've been using this strategy to downsize employment for the last twenty years.

[Charles]

Finally a little good news from Boeing Huntington Beach

Boeing wins Pentagon contract to build a solar-powered drone that can stay aloft for five years | Technology | Los Angeles Times

[Charles]

Best West Coast Cities for Defense 2010

[Charles]

Northrop Grumman: Defense contractor Northrop Grumman's profit rises 1.4% - latimes.com

Is it true, despite the good news in the story above, engineers at the Northrop Grumman sprawling Redondo Beach facility (the old TRW), received colored coded messages from management recently indicating their individual risk of layoff? Green meant low risk, yellow meant moderate risk, and red meant high risk.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by Charles

Northrop Grumman: Defense contractor Northrop Grumman's profit rises 1.4% - latimes.com

Is it true, despite the good news in the story above, engineers at the Northrop Grumman sprawling Redondo Beach facility (the old TRW), received colored coded messages from management recently indicating their individual risk of layoff? Green meant low risk, yellow meant moderate risk, and red meant high risk.

The Pentagon is pushing Gov't agencies and their contractors to reduce costs Big Time right now. So this is affecting many areas/companies nationwide. NG is growing and profiting on the one hand, yet needs to demonstrate significant cost saving measures on the other. So new contracts and associated jobs are occuring while layoffs to select areas will most likely occur as well.

Is it a net loss or gain? I think it depends who answers the question:
1. the new hire who just locked in a nice position on a new contract
2. the stock holders
3. the customers (DoD)
4. the person receiving a pink slip at Space Park or asked to relocate
5. the average average CA resident who may be effected by jobs moving

And there will be a continued shake out. So it will be interesting to see how things unfold especially for Redondo Beach employees. From what I understood it was mainly the business/acounting/HR type positions. But it could be more. And I don't know if those will be elimination of the positions or rather a transfer to the new corporate offices.

Derek

[MtnSurfer]

I found a good aritcle describing the nature of the cuts in more detail here: Northrop to cut 500 jobs

...
The Redondo Beach-based maker of weather and military communication satellites, aircraft sections and weaponized lasers currently employs about 12,500 people in the South Bay.

The cuts will focus on those not attached to a specific government contract, known as indirect support staff, including administrative personnel working in finance, management, human resources, communications and supplier management.

Most of Aerospace Systems' indirect support staff work in the South Bay.

However, employees working on programs attached to a contract such as the F/A-18 Super Hornet, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter or Global Hawk are not included in Monday's layoff announcement.

Northrop said its planned cuts are caused by "increased pressure" on the budget of the Department of Defense - the company's biggest customer - as well as the "need to remain cost competitive."

"We regret the need to take this action," Robert J. McNulty, sector vice president of human resources and administration, said in a statement. "It is a necessary step to address affordability initiatives of our customers and allow us to effectively compete in a very cost-conscious marketplace." ....

Even as the company prepares to cut jobs, it's trying to fill nearly 250 open positions in California that are attached to ongoing programs.

"We will make every attempt to fill those openings with employees being laid off," Hart said...

Northrop's last large-scale layoffs in the South Bay were announced in March of last year to eliminate duplicate positions as it combined the two locally based sectors, Space Technology and Integrated Systems. -- The Press Telegram, Long Beach

This last sentance is key as it really is an effort to run more efficiently, reducing internal redundancy and corporate overhead. The RB facility is carry over from the old TRW days. After the merger many things remained as they are today. So it really is a part of that evolutionary process as well IMO. But none the less is will be unfortunate for those who lose their jobs.

Also keep in mind that indirect support staff means non-billable hours which are instead billed to overhead. And NG, like other large corporations, has pretty high overhead already. So that is a logical place to look at closer when cosidering cutting costs.

Derek

[Charles]

There's also a big rumor about Boeing gobbling up NG for each of their survivals. My understanding is NG is in the process of selling off it's ship building divisions and those divisions (unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber security, maybe radars) that complement Boeing's core businesses (large systems integrators, commercial aircraft) will be picked up by Boeing.

Boeing may look more different that one mountain surfer looked in high school.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by Charles

There's also a big rumor about Boeing gobbling up NG for each of their survivals. My understanding is NG is in the process of selling off it's ship building divisions and those divisions (unmanned aerial vehicles, cyber security, maybe radars) that complement Boeing's core businesses (large systems integrators, commercial aircraft) will be picked up by Boeing.

Boeing may look more different that one mountain surfer looked in high school.

Haha, Yeah, maybe we'll all be working for Boeing someday, or NG...