NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — With a booming economy and low unemployment, private shipyards across the nation are facing a continuing labor shortage.
As a result, the delivery of warships to the Navy is in some cases years behind schedule. But lawmakers and stakeholders are teaming up to assist the Navy's industrial base, in hopes of finding and keeping the skilled tradespeople they need to do the job.
The numbers aren't great. The Hampton Roads maritime industry is currently 10,000 workers short of what it needs, and projections show that by the year 2030, they could be 40,000 short.
Federal leaders have taken notice of those numbers and are taking action.
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia, 3rd District) Wednesday toured HII Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School. They got an up-close look at the 105-year-old program, where students become craftsmen during a minimum of 7,000 hours of on-the-job training in one of 19 shipbuilding disciplines.
The idea is to find, attract, train, and retain a workforce that is crucial to national security.
"We're actually asking young men and women from all over the nation to consider the maritime trades so we can actually build the great ships that our sailors and Marines depend upon all throughout the world," said Del Toro.
The leaders brought with them a $6 million check to the Hampton Roads Workforce Council to be used to expand apprenticeship programming and boost public-private partnerships. The grants will enhance the pathways for employment in the Hampton Roads region, connecting people to jobs.
"We need the roads and bridges that connect people to the jobs they want and need and the employers to the people they want and need. And some of that is just as basic as being clear that shipbuilding jobs are good jobs," said Su.
"To get those jobs, you need skills. You can't get those skills without the job training," added Scott.
A comprehensive review examining national and local causes of the challenges to shipbuilding, ordered by Del Toro and released in April, found that five classes of warships are now running anywhere from one to three years behind schedule.