Airbus is looking for 800 workers, including 700 in Quebec
Employees working on an A220-100 at Mirabel.
The giant Airbus is launching an unprecedented recruitment campaign in the country. Struggling with slow production last year, the aircraft manufacturer is looking for 800 workers in Canada, including 700 in Quebec, in a marked context of labor shortage where several players in the sector are busy finding staff. .
This is the largest campaign of its kind since the establishment of Airbus in Canada in 1984, confirmed Amélie Forcier, spokesperson for Airbus Canada, during an interview with Radio-Canada.
In particular, the company must support its ramp-up in production of its A220 aircraft, formerly Bombardier's C Series, assembled in Mirabel. The company also wants to meet the challenges of helicopters, defense and space.
From 2025, Airbus aims to build 10 A220 aircraft monthly at its Montreal facilities, a milestone for the profitability of the program. But to do this, it must hire massively. Airbus continues to have great ambitions in Canada, said Benoît Schultz, President and CEO of Airbus Canada in a press release.
In 2022, Airbus had delivered 53 A220 aircraft, an increase of just three aircraft from 2021 amid a slowing supply chain. Despite everything in 2022, the aircraft manufacturer created 400 new positions related to the A220 aircraft at Mirabel.
Of the 800 workers sought, 500 will be assigned to new positions.
Airbus also says it wishes to allocate a third of the positions to young graduates and early career professionals, and wants women to make up 33% of their hires.
The jobs sought are in the production and quality, engineering, IT and customer service sectors. Two-thirds of the workforce will go to support functions, while one-third will be assigned to production.
Airbus employs 4,000 people at its ten locations in Canada, including 3000 in Mirabel. The company also has two production complexes in Ontario.
The Quebec government still owns 25% of the A220 aircraft program. The Liberal government of Philippe Couillard had first invested 1.3 billion dollars to save the C Series in 2016.
Then, the CAQ government of François Legault invested 380 million dollars in the program that has become the A220, sold free of charge by Bombardier to Airbus last year, and he hopes to keep his stake and recover some of the money invested.
It is not just Airbus that is looking for workers in this sector. Some fifty players in the industry are currently taking part in a seduction operation overseen by Aéro Montréal aimed at attracting personnel.
We have launched a major communication campaign with the big public to make the aerospace sector attractive […] We have a variety and a quantity of jobs that will be required to ensure growth in the coming years, underlines Mélanie Lussier, new CEO of Aéro Montréal, in an interview at Radio-Canada.
An advertising campaign for the aeronautical sector has been launched to reach young people.
In particular, the sector is trying to reach young talent by using social networks and new communication channels.
We really got off the beaten track […] We are going to Instagram, to TikTok, we have called on influencers to reach young people where they are, she explains.
Currently, there are 35,000 employees working in the aerospace sector, which is highly concentrated in Montreal, one of the most important centers in the world.
For the air transport and manufacturing, we have 38,000 jobs that will need to be filled over the next 10 years, says Ms. Lussier.
An advertising campaign to reach young people has been launched by Aéro Montréal.
There are about thirty categories of positions that will be in short supply in the next two years, mainly machinists, programmers, maintenance technicians, etc., explains- it.
The latter reminds us that several types of trades will be required to work in aerospace companies.
We promote the plurality of occupations. Yes, it takes engineers, but we also need lawyers, suppliers, artificial intelligence people. We must be present to be everywhere in all educational settings.
