The aerospace group Airbus plans to hire 3,500 people in Germany this year. About 1,900 of them are needed in civil aircraft construction, 1,100 in the military and aerospace sectors and about 500 in the helicopter factory, Labor Director Marco Wagner said on Wednesday.
Above all, electricians, mechanics and cabin outfitters are needed, but also IT specialists, cyber security experts and developers of fuel cells and hybrid drive systems.
Around 1,300 external recruitments were made at the Hamburg location, said Wagner. There are around 500 at the Donauwörth and Manching locations and 300 in Ottobrunn. 250 women and men are to be hired in Nordenham, 130 in Friedrichshafen/Immenstadt and 100 each in Bremen and Stade.
A third of the positions for young professionals
Around 20 percent of the new employees will deal with future issues. Among other things, Wagner mentioned decarbonization, digital transformation, software development and cyber technologies. A third of all jobs should go to young professionals and a third to women. To date, 20 percent of the workforce is female.
Airbus says it hired 13,000 men and women worldwide last year, half of them in civil aircraft construction, 30 percent in the military and space sectors and around 20 percent in helicopter construction. “That was the steepest growth in the history of Airbus,” said Wagner. Airbus currently employs around 134,000 people worldwide, 45,000 of them in Germany. At the largest location in Hamburg, there are around 15,000 employees.
The district manager of IG Metall Coast, Daniel Friedrich, was pleased with the planned new hires. “The ramp-up can only be managed with a larger permanent workforce,” he emphasized. Many temporary workers now get permanent employment through the collective agreements. At the same time, Friedrich accused Airbus of not having reacted well to the crisis. “If the company had relied more on short-time work and reduced working hours, it would not have to advertise for new employees like this.”
