AI Boom Drains Aerospace Talent Pool as Industry Scrambles for Young Recruits
Watching planes take to the sky, 17-year-old Hassan Butt represents the exact kind of talent the aerospace industry is desperate to attract. Volunteering at this week’s Farnborough Airshow, Butt dreams of a career in aerospace engineering and missile technology.
But according to industry executives, candidates like Butt are becoming increasingly rare.
As older engineers near retirement, the UK aerospace and defense sector faces a critical shortage of roughly 10,000 specialized engineers per year. Compounding the problem is the meteoric rise of the technology sector—particularly artificial intelligence—which is aggressively siphoning off high-level engineering talent.
According to a March report by the Royal Aeronautical Society, over 50% of licensed UK aerospace engineers are over age 50, while fewer than 10% are under 30. Trade group ADS notes that while the UK aerospace sector has expanded by 31% over the past decade, its workforce pipeline simply hasn't kept pace.
"We’ve been experiencing a shortage of skilled workers for some time... despite the industry growing year after year," said Kevin Craven, CEO of ADS. He suggests that emerging sectors, such as electric flying taxis and green aviation, could serve as key lures for younger talent.
High Competition and Higher Salaries
The talent squeeze comes at a challenging time for manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus, who are grappling with record order backlogs while watching veteran workers retire. The crisis was exacerbated years ago when many defense companies shuttered traditional apprenticeship programs to cut costs—a decision they are now scrambling to fix through graduate schemes, interactive exhibits, and hands-on competitions at events like Farnborough.
However, aerospace firms face stiff competition from tech giants offering higher starting pay and lower barriers to entry.
"If you're graduating from a premier engineering program like MIT or Purdue, you might look at OpenAI or Anthropic instead of Boeing or Airbus," noted Jerrold Lundquist, managing director of advisory firm The Lundquist Group.
To counter this, the UK government hopes renewed defense investment—driven in part by the war in Ukraine and projects like BAE Systems' "Brontanax" unmanned fighter drone—will reinvigorate interest in defense careers.
For students like 17-year-old Molly Haydon, the industry's outreach still has room to grow, particularly in recruiting young women.
"They need to educate more young people early on," Haydon said. "There are still great opportunities in this sector for everyone."