International Aerospace Jobs

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Manufacturing of aerospace equipment in the European Union is a thriving high-tech business. The EU's aerospace business offers cutting edge jobs to 363,900 people and generates 29 billion Euros.

In terms of economic weight this translates as .3 % of the total workforce and 1.1 % of the total manufacturing sector.

Aerospace manufacturing is strongest in and gives most aviation jobs in France and in the United Kingdom. The importance of the aerospace market in the total non-monetary business enterprise economy is reasonably little. A extremely research-intensive sector, aerospace jobs in Europe are orientated towards workers educated to a high level.

The aerospace business is highly concentrated inside the EU. The largest contributor to the sector is the United Kingdom (EUR 11 billion), accounting for a share of 39 %, then France and Germany with respective shares of roughly 22 % and 20 %. Together, these three countries account for about 80 % of the total EU aerospace business, compared with an typical of 55 % in manufacturing. This is a collective weight that is even higher for turnover (85 %), but smaller for employment (72 %).

The manufacture of aerospace equipment covers aircraft equipment, parts and accessories utilized in the production of aircraft and spacecraft, air transport of passengers or freight, as properly as military applications. It is basically an assembly market, with miscellaneous components also getting produced by other industries.

Aerospace finance.

So much for aerospace employment, but look at monetary turnover, and the picture is distinctive. Of the EUR 92 billion generated in the aerospace equipment sector, France emerged as the top contributor, accounting for 41%. This reflects the concentration of aircraft assembly activity. Airbus is based there, 1 of the world's two dominant civil aircraft producers. The sector in the UK followed with a 27.5 % share, ahead of that in Germany with 16.7%.

Nevertheless, the aerospace equipment sector in the UK offers the most international aerospace jobs, amounting to a share of 29.two % of the EU-25 total of 363,900. France's sector is the second largest employer with 22.6 %, and Germany's the third with 20.6 %.

Apparent labour productivity in the aerospace equipment sector in the EU-25 amounts to EUR 79,900 value added per person employed, properly above the average in manufacturing of EUR 45,300.

Productivity is highest in the United Kingdom, considerably abovethe typical of its manufacturing market. Then follows Belgium, France, Germany and Italy with values over EUR 70,000. The Netherlands and seven other Member States, reasonably smaller contributors to the sector, have lower productivity levels than the average of their manufacturing business.

Regardless of greater personnel expenses, wage adjusted labour productivity is much more than in manufacturing. The United Kingdom once again has the highest productivity level. By contrast, in Poland and Portugal, aerospace manufacturing is not profitable. While the sector in the UK has the highest share of enterprises (31.8 % of the EU-25 total), ahead of France (17.4 %) and Germany (9.3 %), Germany in reality has the highest average enterprise size (359 persons employed), ahead of Italy (227) and France (210). The EU-25 typical (in 2001) was 166 persons per enterprise, against just 16 in manufacturing.

Miltary aerospace jobs or civil aircraft jobs?

Looking at the breakdown of the business in terms of civil and military sectors, there is a gradual shift from the manufacturing of predominantly military aircraft to civilian. The share of the civil sector amounted to 64 % by 2003, right after peaking at about 70 % by 2000.

In a breakdown by final goods, civilian aircraft ranks first with 43.4 % of turnover, ahead of military aircraft with 25.9 %. Among minor contributions, helicopters accounts for 9.9 % of turnover, slightly even more than spacecraft and missiles with 7.7 % and 7.three % respectively.

Final goods, yet, generates only 58.5 % of total turnover, aircraft maintenance accounting for 22 %, when engines and equipment make up the remainder.

France has the highest intermediate consumption as a percentage of production value, therefore reflecting the concentration of assembly activities in this country. This also explains why the country's share in EU turnover (41%) is just about twice its share in EU value-added (22 %). By contrast, in the United Kingdom intermediate consumption is just 51% of production value.

Mainly because of the assembly nature of the sector, one may possibly anticipate intermediate consumption to be higher than in manufacturing across the board. On the other hand this is only the case in France, by a difference of about 11 percentage points. The high value added typical for the production of single parts reverses the situation for the other key contributors.

Aerospace personnel costs

Reasonably high personnel expenses does not make aerospace less profitable. Typical personnel expenses in aerospace equipment manufacturing are relatively high when compared with the average of manufacturing industry. The typical in the EU-25 is EUR 51,067, about 58 % additional than the typical of manufacturing business of EUR 32,318. Average personnel expenses in the sector are above the EU typical in 4 of the key contributing countries and also in Norway. Expenses are highest in Germany at EUR 66,186, followed by Norway (EUR 62,592).

With the exception of Belgium, the distinction among average personnel costs in aerospace equipment manufacturing and in total manufacturing is highest in the major contributing countries, ranging from a gap of nearly EUR 22,000 in Germany to less than half that quantity in Sweden (EUR 10,753). Yet, in relative terms, typical personnel costs in the Hungarian manufacturing sector are only 53 % of what they are in aerospace equipment manufacturing. Interestingly, in the 7 Slovak aerospace enterprises, these costs are on typical lower.

The United Kingdom has the highest gross operating margin, at 22 %, which exceeds the typical of manufacturing business by roughly 10 percentage points. France, by contrast, has a low gross operating margin of 5 %, mainly due again to its particular assembly activity.

Personnel costs account for 20 percent of turnover for aerospace equipment manufacturing, which is 2 percentage points a lot more than the average in manufacturing. However, this does not hamper the profitability of the sector, as measured by the gross operating margin (gross operating surplus over turnover), which is 11.five percent in aerospace manufacturing, about 2.7 percentage points a lot more than in manufacturing.

Aircraft jobs Germany.

Aircraft jobs in Germany have shown the most stable growth in a volatile sector. More than 10 years to 2004, growth in the aerospace sector was about 50 %, compared with roughly 19 % in manufacturing. Even if the aerospace sector has grown substantially over the last decade, its development has been reasonably volatile.

The most striking example was the rebound in the late nineties, characterised by six consecutive years of growth, just right after a period of declining output more than five successive years.

Nevertheless, in the context of a general economic slowdown and a downturn in air transport following the terrorist attacks of 11th September 2001, aerospace output dropped by 10.five% in 2002, whereas manufacturing only slightly contracted. It is now frequently accepted that this drop was the net result of declines, especially in the United Kingdom (19 %) but also France, Italy and Spain, only partly offset by a sustained growth in Germany.

Growth rebounded, on the other hand, in 2003 by 5.5 % and by a further three.7 % in 2004, clearly exceeding the average of manufacturing market. However, Italy and the United Kingdom still felt the downturn, as output in 2004 was nonetheless below the 2000 level.

Despite stability, over the last decade, employment in the German aerospace business grew at much less than half the pace of production, though the Spanish aerospace market thrived with employment growing by +158 %, exceeding its production growth of +110%. In Belgium and the United Kingdom, on the other hand, employment shrunk by -30 % and -two %, in spite of production growth of +70 % and +42 % respectively. Employment also decreased slightly (-.7 %) in France, but by -37.8 % in Italy. Production elevated also in these Member States by 63 % and 17 % respectively.

Seeking briefly at the effects on employment of the -10.5 % decline in production in between 2001 and 2002, employment decreased in Belgium, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, but really increased in Germany, Spain and Sweden.

Full-time aerospace employment.

Employees are alot more most likely to have full-time jobs in the aerospace sector, than, on typical, within manufacturing industry. The shares of component-time employment in the aerospace sector are normally particularly low. In Belgium, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, shares range among .1 % and 3.3 %, among five and 6 percentage points lower than in manufacturing. In Spain, exactly where the share is .three %, the difference is smallest: just over 1 percentage point less. Still, in France, part-timers make up 7 % of the employees, which is even so still much less than the typical of this country's manufacturing business (9 %).

Workers in the UK's aerospace sector work longest, about 18 % a lot more hours than their counterparts in France, ranking second. When comparing typical hours worked in the aerospace business with manufacturing. This has some thing to do with national labour market policies, of course, but the UK's aerospace sector stands out considering that the typical in aerospace industry exceeds that in manufacturing by about 16 %.

Nonetheless, even though workers in the UK's aerospace sector function longest, they are not the most productive. German and Belgian employees are most productive, every at just under EUR 54 per hour, though those in the UK rank third at EUR 49 per hour. Value added per hour worked in the aerospace industries in Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom is around 1.5 times these countries' respective manufacturing industry averages. In France and Italy this sector generates around 40 more, at EUR 40 and EUR 42 per hour respectively. In Belgium, the distinction is only 15 % and in Sweden there is not significantly distinction.

Research jobs.

Clearly one of the EU's cutting-edge, high-technology sectors, the aerospace sector is highly analysis intensive, with research budgets always considerably additional than the typical of manufacturing industry. In France, 28 % of the sector's value-added turnover is devoted to this expense (manufacturing: 7%), although in the UK and Germany it was 17 (manufacturing 5 % and 10% respectively).