An article in today's Puget Sound Business Journal brought our attention to a new "Talent Pipeline Study for Aerospace" published by the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County. It's full of fascinating data on employment in the aerospace industry through 2023.

Some highlights:

• While "overall employment within the aerospace industry will decline by 0.8% annually from 2013 to 2023," the study says "[o]penings among key aerospace occupations are projected to increase by 1.3% annually" in that same time period.
• "Openings for computer systems analysts in aerospace are expected to experience an undersupply of 113 workers annually, the largest occupational gap in King County’s aerospace sector. Local qualified candidates are only expected to fill 16% of computer systems analyst openings."
• "Industry experts indicated demand for some occupations is expected to be greater in magnitude than indicated by available data. In particular, machinists, mechanics, engineers, Computer Numerical Control (CNC) programmers and Computer Measuring Machine (CMM) programmers are all expected to see high demand in the coming years. Many occupations expected to experience increased demand are being driven by an ageing trend in the current workforce and the move toward high tech and automation within the industry."

Projections of shortages in jobs that require advanced computer skills track with what Code.org, for example, has to say about Washington state: We have more than 17,000 open computing jobs yet produced only 1,001 computer science majors in 2014.

On the other hand, for aerospace jobs that don't require a four-year degree,

Industry stakeholders indicated a shifting focus toward training programs for high school students, as well as internships and work-based learning opportunities. Interviewees said it would behoove the aerospace industry to focus messaging around high quality aerospace jobs and training programs as alternative educational paths. This approach challenges the traditional ideology that students need a four-year degree to achieve occupational success…Community colleges in King County are also working with the aerospace industry to increase their training offerings to prepare students for aerospace occupations of the future.

There's much more information in the study – we'll dig into it further in future posts.

​(Photo courtesy Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County)