KITTERY, Maine - Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery says it's in the process of hiring more than 700 workers.
Officials at the shipyard, which maintains and overhauls Navy attack submarines, announced Thursday morning that recruiting is underway with a goal of completing the hiring by the end of September.
"The mood at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is very positive," says shipyard Executive Director Bill Banks. Banks says 715 workers are being hired in all - and there are a lot of positions to be filled.
"The vast majority of the people we're recruiting right now are in engineering - engineering technicians, administrative, various trade skills such as pipe fitters, plastic fabricators, shipwrights, outside machinists," Banks says.
The list goes on. The shipyard is part of the U.S. Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command, or NAVSEA, which plans to grow its civilian workforce in Kittery from 4,700 to 5,200 - an increase which takes into account the 200 or so workers it expects to lose this year through "planned attrition" - that is, workers leaving through retirement or to take other jobs.
Naval analyst Dave Majumdar says the hiring initiative at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard should not be viewed as a workforce increase - more as a case of getting back to normal levels.
"This is where they should have been all along," Majumdar says.
NAVSEA announced in October that sequestration-related cuts had contributed to "significant'' maintenance delays for the Navy's fleet of nuclear submarines.
With many of America's nuclear submarines due for mid-life upgrades and re-fueling, Majumdar says getting the shipyards back up to speed is essential - but it won't be easy. "It's going to be a huge challenge," he says.
He says the kinds of skilled workers that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is looking for don't just walk through door ready to go. "You have to train them and grow them organically," Majumdar says. "You don't just hire someone off the street and hope they can work in a nuclear submarine."
The shipyard's workforce is divided roughly evenly between Maine and New Hampshire. According to NAVSEA, it's one of the largest economic engines in the Seacoast area, with more than $450 million in civilian and military payroll alone.
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