Weapons Makers Can’t Hire Enough Workers as Ukraine War Drives Demand
“Our first priority is really to ramp up capacity, which, of course, means increasing staff,” Patrice Caine, chief executive of Thales (https://archive.ph/o/d4T2f/https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/FR/XPAR/HO) SA, said on an investor call last month. The French company, whose products include sensors for submarines and jets, plans to hire 12,000 people this year.
To deal with what he described as “tensions on some labor markets,” Mr. Caine said Thales plans to further develop its foreign engineering centers as well as rely more on partnerships with other companies, having expanded its own talent-acquisition function last year.
Global military spending rose 3.7% to a record of $2.24 trillion last year, according to data released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank. Expenditure in Europe increased at its steepest year-over-year rate in at least 30 years, SIPRI said.
The hiring challenge is part of a wider supply-chain crunch for the defense industry. Arms makers are also contending with shortages of key components (https://archive.ph/o/d4T2f/https://www.wsj.com/articles/lockheed-martin-lmt-q1-earnings-report-2023-db3de58?mod=article_inline) such as chips and rocket motors as well as rising costs. That has left some contractors struggling to fill their orders (https://archive.ph/o/d4T2f/https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-ukraine-hasnt-been-a-boon-to-u-s-defense-companies-11675176026?mod=article_inline).
U.S. defense companies have been wrestling with labor shortages since last year, when they accelerated efforts to replace workers who didn’t return from pandemic furloughs.
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