Manufacturing jobs are on the rise in Los Angeles County, a trend reflected in the growing workforces at many of the largest outfits with operations here.
Leading the pack locally are aerospace and defense companies, which are getting a boost from the need to continually maintain and repair older equipment as well as a growing United States Department of Defense budget for new products.
The gains were scattered among the 50 companies on the Business Journal’s list, which ranks the entities by number of employees in L.A. County. A total of 12 reported more workers than a year ago, while nine were down and 27 were estimated to be flat.
Combined, the companies employed a total 71,544 workers over the past 12 months, a gain of 3.5 percent from a year earlier.
That compares with a 1.2 percent increase in jobs for Los Angeles County overall for the 12 months ended May 31, the closed range of comparison currently available.
Twelve of the top 50 manufacturers – 24 percent – made products for the aerospace and/or defense industry.
Northrop Grumman Corp. topped the Business Journal’s 2018 list for the third year running, with 16,600 employees in L.A. County. The company credits its F-35 aircraft manufacturing facility in Palmdale as a mainstay for local jobs.
“We manufacture the fuselages on an automated assembly, and recently ramped up to full-rate production producing a fuselage every day and a half. This pace has not been achieved for decades in military aircraft production,” said Kevin Mitchell, senior vice president of global operations.
Northrup Grumman also has a major facility in Redondo Beach, where it produces aircraft, spacecraft, tactical warfare equipment and high-energy laser systems.
Boeing Co., which previously stood at No. 2 on the list, dropped to No. 4.
The decline came in part on a change in research methods by the Business Journal. Prior lists used a statewide number for employment, the only data provided by Boeing. This year’s list carries a Business Journal estimate of the company’s employment in Los Angeles County.
Boeing in any case could jump back up the ratings list next year, according to George Ferguson, senior aerospace and defense analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence.
“Any supplier is going to have a lot more work in the next couple of years then they did previously,” Ferguson said. He said that Boeing and Airbase Services Inc., which manufactures airline equipment, announced the need for increased production in 2017.
This advance notice likely sparked a hiring boom across all aerospace and airline manufacturers, Ferguson said, as companies scramble to meet demand and adjust production plans.
“When they step up their rate, suppliers have to step up their rate six months to a year beforehand,” Ferguson said. Ferguson reported Boeing aims to produce 10 more 737 single-aisle aircrafts by 2019.
Raytheon Co., which operates its manufacturing center in El Segundo, placed No. 2 on the top 50 list, rising one spot above its previous 2017 ranking. Raytheon credits the success of its business to numerous defense contracts, including one for the U.S. Air Force to assemble radar warning receivers to protect pilots. Raytheon would not disclose the contract amount.
Raytheon spokesman B.J. Boling said the company’s El Segundo location had secured over $350 million in classified contracts alone in the first quarter of 2018.
“L.A. has a highly skilled and talented workforce….and our heritage of innovation is well known,” Boling said.
The U.S. defense budget, the largest in the past four years, is a factor in manufacturing uptick.
“If you think back to the fact that the 2017 federal defense budget request was roughly $600 billion, the request is $686 billion for 2019, (so) we are now starting to approach $700 billion,” Ferguson said.
No. 3 is Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), growing nearly 50 percent from 2017 with 6,000 employees. Contracts with satellite manufacturers such as the U.S. Air Force, India’s Antrix Corp., Taiwan’s National Space Organization, Carlsbad-based Viasat Inc. and NASA to resupply the International Space Station have kept SpaceX growing steadily. The company launched its 15th payload to the Space Station on June 29 and reported the closure of a $290 million fixed contract with the Air Force in March.
“His growth is because he sees the opportunity and wants to hire a lot of people to grab that opportunity, and a new way to go after the business,” Ferguson said of Musk.
While defense, rocketry, and aerospace manufacturing topped the charts, refineries and transportation manufacturers also enjoyed an increase from the previous year. Torrance-based refinery PBF Energy Inc. was No. 27, up two spots from a year earlier, thanks to 4.2 percent increase that bought its payroll to 625 employees.
BYD Ltd. Corp., a manufacturer of electric vehicles, increased its employee count by 100 percent year-to-date to 800 employees from 2017, rising to No. 21 from No. 47.
The downtown Los Angeles outfit credits a plant expansion completed in 2017 as a key factor in its robust success, which “allowed us to more than triple our bus and truck manufacturing operations from 106,000 to 440,000 square feet,” said BYD Motors President Stella Li.
