International Aerospace Jobs

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Manufacturing of aerospace equipment in the European Union is a thriving high-tech industry. The EU's aerospace market gives cutting edge jobs to 363,900 people today 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 delivers most aviation jobs in France and in the United Kingdom. The importance of the aerospace industry in the total non-monetary small business economy is relatively small. A extremely analysis-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 market, compared with an typical of 55 % in manufacturing. This is a collective weight that is even greater for turnover (85 %), but smaller for employment (72 %).

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

Aerospace finance.

So significantly for aerospace employment, but appear at financial turnover, and the picture is different. Of the EUR 92 billion generated in the aerospace equipment sector, France emerged as the leading contributor, accounting for 41%. This reflects the concentration of aircraft assembly activity. Airbus is based there, one 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 29.2 % 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, nicely above the typical in manufacturing of EUR 45,300.

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

Despite greater personnel costs, wage adjusted labour productivity is even more than in manufacturing. The United Kingdom once more has the highest productivity level. By contrast, in Poland and Portugal, aerospace manufacturing is not profitable. Although 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.three %), Germany in fact has the highest typical 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?

Searching 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, after peaking at about 70 % by 2000.

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

Final products, still, generates only 58.five % of total turnover, aircraft maintenance accounting for 22 %, although engines and equipment make up the remainder.

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

Considering that of the assembly nature of the sector, 1 may anticipate intermediate consumption to be greater than in manufacturing across the board. Having said that this is only the case in France, by a distinction of about 11 percentage points. The high worth added typical for the production of single parts reverses the situation for the other most important contributors.

Aerospace personnel costs

Somewhat high personnel expenses does not make aerospace much less profitable. Typical personnel expenses in aerospace equipment manufacturing are somewhat high when compared with the average of manufacturing industry. The average in the EU-25 is EUR 51,067, about 58 % alot more than the average of manufacturing business of EUR 32,318. Typical personnel expenses in the sector are above the EU typical in 4 of the primary 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 between average personnel expenses in aerospace equipment manufacturing and in total manufacturing is highest in the main contributing countries, ranging from a gap of almost EUR 22,000 in Germany to much less than half that amount in Sweden (EUR 10,753). On the other hand, in relative terms, typical personnel expenses in the Hungarian manufacturing sector are only 53 % of what they are in aerospace equipment manufacturing. Interestingly, in the 7 Slovak aerospace enterprises, these expenses are on typical lower.

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

Personnel expenses account for 20 percent of turnover for aerospace equipment manufacturing, which is 2 percentage points even more than the average in manufacturing. Nonetheless, this does not hamper the profitability of the sector, as measured by the gross operating margin (gross operating surplus more than turnover), which is 11.5 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 approximately 19 % in manufacturing. Even if the aerospace sector has grown substantially over the last decade, its development has been comparatively volatile.

The most striking example was the rebound in the late nineties, characterised by six consecutive years of growth, just immediately after a period of declining output more than 5 successive years.

But, 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 10.5% in 2002, whereas manufacturing only slightly contracted. It is now generally 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, but, in 2003 by 5.five % and by a further three.7 % in 2004, clearly exceeding the typical of manufacturing market. Even so, Italy and the United Kingdom still felt the downturn, as output in 2004 was still below the 2000 level.

In spite of stability, over the last decade, employment in the German aerospace industry grew at less than half the pace of production, although the Spanish aerospace business 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 increased also in these Member States by 63 % and 17 % respectively.

Searching briefly at the effects on employment of the -10.5 % decline in production among 2001 and 2002, employment decreased in Belgium, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, but in fact elevated in Germany, Spain and Sweden.

Full-time aerospace employment.

Staff are even more most likely to have full-time jobs in the aerospace sector, than, on typical, within manufacturing business. The shares of component-time employment in the aerospace sector are commonly very low. In Belgium, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, shares range among .1 % and three.3 %, among 5 and 6 percentage points lower than in manufacturing. In Spain, where the share is .three %, the distinction is smallest: just over 1 percentage point much less. However, in France, portion-timers make up 7 % of the employees, which is having said that nonetheless less than the average of this country's manufacturing industry (9 %).

Employees in the UK's aerospace sector function longest, about 18 % additional hours than their counterparts in France, ranking second. When comparing average hours worked in the aerospace market with manufacturing. This has something 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 %.

Yet, despite the fact that staff in the UK's aerospace sector function longest, they are not the most productive. German and Belgian workers are most productive, each and every at just below EUR 54 per hour, even 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 about 1.5 times these countries' respective manufacturing business averages. In France and Italy this sector generates around 40 more, at EUR 40 and EUR 42 per hour respectively. In Belgium, the difference is only 15 % and in Sweden there is not considerably difference.

Investigation jobs.

Clearly 1 of the EU's cutting-edge, high-technology sectors, the aerospace sector is extremely study intensive, with investigation budgets usually substantially more than the typical of manufacturing market. In France, 28 % of the sector's worth-added turnover is devoted to this expense (manufacturing: 7%), though in the UK and Germany it was 17 (manufacturing five % and 10% respectively).