The aerospace industry has more orders than it can build, and the main limit is now people. Boeing and Airbus hold a combined backlog of more than 15,000 commercial jets. At the same time, employers say engineering jobs are the hardest to fill. Nearly a quarter of their factory and engineering staff are 55 or older. How fast the aerospace workforce grows will shape how fast the industry can grow over the next decade.
Demand is not in doubt. The supply of skilled workers is. Here is what the data shows and what it means for companies, engineers and anyone thinking about a career in the field.
An Industry Running at Full Demand
The Aerospace Industries Association says U.S. aerospace and defense supported about 2.1 million jobs and generated $989 billion in sales in 2025. Average wages topped $127,000. That is about 40% above the national average. The industry sold $172.7 billion in goods abroad and ran a $109.2 billion trade surplus.
Order books are deeper than ever. Boeing reported a record total backlog of $715 billion at the end of June 2026. That total includes more than 6,200 commercial planes. Airbus had a backlog of 9,222 commercial aircraft at the same point. It aims to deliver about 870 planes this year.
Space is growing too. The Space Foundation says the global space economy reached $686 billion in 2025, up 12%. Commercial work made up about 79% of that total.
Where the Workforce Gap Shows Up
A 2025 study by AIA and McKinsey put the problem in plain numbers. About 24% of manufacturing and engineering employees are 55 or older, and 76% of the companies surveyed say engineering roles are their hardest to source. Staff turnover has eased from its 2022 peak of 17%. But it still ran near 14.5% in 2024. That is more than twice the rate across other U.S. industries.
An earlier study by AIA and PwC looked at time on the job. About a quarter of the workforce has 20 or more years with their employer. Many of them can already retire. When they leave, they take decades of know-how with them. A new hire cannot replace that in a single year.
The strain goes beyond the factory. Boeing’s 2026 Pilot and Technician Outlook looks ahead 20 years. It says the world will need 674,000 new pilots, 728,000 maintenance technicians and more than one million cabin crew over the next 20 years. North America alone will need about 125,000 technicians. Boeing notes that much of the need in the next decade comes from replacing workers who retire.
Why Maintenance Technicians Matter So Much
Planes cannot fly without certified mechanics, and that workforce is aging fast. The Aviation Technician Education Council and Oliver Wyman made a forecast for North America. They expect about 9,100 certified mechanics to retire in 2026 alone. They expect more than 39,000 to retire over the next decade. Replacing that skill is the hard part.
There is some good news. The FAA issued a record 11,103 mechanic certificates in 2025. That was up more than 23% from the year before. Training schools are filling seats. The catch is that skill on the job, not just a license, sets how fast a new tech gets up to speed.
Demand for that labor keeps climbing. Airlines are flying older planes longer while they wait for new ones. Older planes need more upkeep.
The Engineering Pipeline
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts about 68,700 aerospace engineers in the United States. Their median pay was $134,960 in May 2025, and employment is projected to grow 8% through 2035. That is faster than the average for all jobs. It works out to about 3,800 openings each year. Most come from people who retire or change jobs.
Those openings span airlines and planemakers, defense and space launch. They also include a fast-growing group of defense tech startups backed by venture funds. These new firms compete for the same pool of engineers.
For engineers, that contest brings leverage and choice. Business Insiders has profiled an aerospace engineer who built his career on a willingness to take risks. That kind of path gets easier when skills are scarce.
Supply Chains Feel It Too
The workforce gap adds to the industry’s well-known supply chain problems. Engines, castings, forgings and titanium are all in short supply. Each of those suppliers relies on skilled machinists, inspectors and quality engineers. Each one faces the same wave of retirements.
Output rates show how tightly it all fits together. After the 2024 door plug incident, the FAA capped Boeing’s 737 output at 38 planes per month. It approved 42 per month in October 2025. Boeing began moving to 47 per month in the second quarter of 2026. Each step up needs more trained people on the line, not just more parts.
What Companies Are Doing About It
The AIA and McKinsey study points employers toward a few practical moves.
- Save know-how before it walks out the door. Pairing senior staff with early-career engineers helps. So does writing down what veterans know. Both cut the risk of losing key skills.
- Widen the hiring net. Community colleges, apprentice programs, veterans and career changers can fill roles that once called for a four-year degree.
- Focus on keeping people. With turnover still high, keeping trained staff costs less than replacing them.
- Invest in management capability. Frontline bosses shape whether new hires stay past their first year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a shortage of aerospace engineers?
Employers say yes. In the 2025 AIA and McKinsey study, 76% of the companies surveyed named engineering roles as their hardest to fill. BLS projects 8% job growth for aerospace engineers through 2035. That is faster than average.
How many aircraft mechanics will be needed?
Boeing expects the world to need 728,000 new maintenance techs over the next 20 years. That includes about 125,000 in North America.
Why are aircraft backlogs so large?
Airline demand has outrun output. Supply chain limits, caps on output from regulators and a lack of skilled labor have all slowed how fast planemakers can deliver.
The Bottom Line
Aerospace has a demand problem most industries would envy. Its limit is the human side of building planes. That means engineers, techs, machinists and the managers who train them. The firms that solve for people will turn record backlogs into record deliveries. And workers with the right skills will have more choices than at any time in a generation.
