President Donald Trump wants defense companies to ramp up weapons and ship manufacturing, but the workers that would be needed to supersize the Pentagon’s arsenal are in increasingly short supply.
Less than half of the aerospace and defense executives surveyed by PwC and the Aerospace Industries Association said they were confident that their companies could double production within 18 months, according to findings published Wednesday. Seventy-four percent identified a shortage of skilled labor as a major constraint.
The survey underscores a major obstacle confronting Trump’s push to quadruple munitions production, accelerate submarine construction and expand the nation’s shipbuilding industry: Manufacturers are competing for a limited pool of blue-collar workers with the specialized skills to crank up factory output.