Aerospace Workforce Center to open at Wright State

The center will open at the Wright State Research Institute this month, said state Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield.

“It’s going to be a pretty robust, dynamic center,” he said. “We felt like employers tell us we have jobs, but we can’t find the people properly trained and qualified.”

Wright State will work with aerospace and defense contractors and the government on the initiative.

Widener said despite fears of automatic, across-the-board defense cuts next January, certain kinds of work will continue to be a priority in military aerospace. Ohio Aerospace Industry President Michael L. Heil says commercial aviation, meanwhile, faces “explosive growth.”

The aerospace industry faces potential employer shortages as baby boomers become eligible for retirement and fewer younger workers enter the field. More than half the employees at the top 20 aerospace firms are eligible to retire by 2016, said Susan Lavrakis, Aerospace Industries Association workforce director in Arlington, Va.

“That’s an awful lot of expertise to replace in any time frame,” said Dan Stohr, an AIA spokesman.

Ohio had 15,992 workers in the aerospace industry in March with an average weekly wage of $1,796, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, however, the state’s largest single site employer had just over 29,000 employees at the end of 2011.

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