The United States is experiencing a skilled worker shortage across the aerospace industry, and the state of Georgia is not immune to this crisis. Georgia is home to 150 companies that employ more than 83,000 aerospace employees, ranking Georgia as a Top 10 state in terms of total aerospace employment. Georgia’s aerospace-related companies, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, Gulfstream and Cessna, have become increasingly aware of this impending workforce shortage and have independently begun to address this issue. On a regional level, there is increasing concern from both public and private employers in the Macon/Warner Robins area related to developing, recruiting, and retaining a skilled aerospace workforce. The largest of these employers is Robins AFB, which employs some 22,000 people. The state’s aerospace industry as a whole is projecting 3.8 percent annual compound growth through 2010. Yet the aerospace workforce in Georgia may soon be insufficient to support this projected growth in workloads by both public and private employers. Approximately 3,000 new workers will be needed in the next two years, based on current projections, within the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) sector alone. Contractors that support the workload activities of Middle Georgia, as well as other private aerospace-related companies, are also anticipating business growth over the next three to five years. With this growth comes a need for additional skilled workers. Where will these workers come from? How will we upgrade the incumbent worker’s skills to handle the changing requirements? Several groups within Georgia’s aerospace community have been asking these questions separately and simultaneously.

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