San Diego Needs More Ship Builders, Repair Personnel

San Diego is still on the defensive when it comes to jobs in the shipbuilding and ship repair industries.

That is the defense industrial base – comprised of the companies that make up the supply chain of the military, which includes hundreds of businesses in San Diego County. The sector continues to be identified by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation as one of the most in-need career paths in the region.

San Diego represents a vital link in the nation’s defense strategy as much of the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet is based in the Pacific and ships must be continually repaired, modernized and maintained in San Diego shipyards. Naval Base San Diego, also known as 32nd Street Naval Station, is the second largest surface ship base of the Navy and is the principal homeport for the Pacific Fleet Surface Navy, which includes more than 150 tenant commands, more than 50 Navy ships and 13 piers.

Last spring, the EDC and its partners hosted the Shipbuilding Regional Industrialization Pilot (SHIP) Regional Visioning event at UC San Diego Park & Market. In collaboration with the Navy, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) program office launched the SHIP program to help regions address supply chain and workforce gaps across the defense shipbuilding industry.

The SHIP team will be assembling a roadmap and presenting investment recommendations based on data it is collecting. The EDC will receive information about regional investments into new and existing programming and will continue to support regional defense employers in strengthening their talent pipelines.

Taylor Dunne, director of talent initiatives for the EDC, said that the Navy is looking to produce two Virginia class submarines plus one Columbia class submarine in the coming years.

“In the work that we’re doing, we’re looking at a lot of shipyard-related business,” Dunne said.  “And we’re also looking at the submarine industrial base, which doesn’t seem like something you might automatically think of when you think of San Diego, but there is actually a really big group of companies that exist in the county that are hugely important to the submarine supply chain. And this is important because the Navy has goals around the production of submarines in the coming years that are really aggressive.”

Replacing Aging Workforce

Reports out of Washington, D.C., say that the Navy’s projection of the submarine builds is that it will be achieved by 2028.

In addition to shipbuilders like General Dynamics NASSCO in the region, Gordon Rutherford, president of the Port of San Diego Ship Repair Association, said there will always a baseline level of need of ship repair in San Diego as well.

“As long as there’s a Navy here, you’re going to need people who can work on ships,” said Rutherford, a 30-year Navy veteran who retired 12 years ago. “And it’s a very specific skill set. We’re talking trades, the men and women that actually do the difficult tasks: welding, electrical, pipe fitting, sheet metal work, fabrication, all that stuff. There is always going to be a need for people to go into that line of work. One of the challenges that we have in ship repair is it’s not as glamorous as some of the other work that’s out there. But it’s one that’ll always be needed.”

The skilled trades labor shortage is driven by baby boomers retiring from the sector as well as shrinking interest, which could possibly be improved with better demand signaling, Rutherford said.

“From my perspective, the ship repair that we do here, we always have a need for fresh blood to be coming into the industry,” said Rutherford, who for nearly a decade worked BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair. “You look at the demographics of a lot of folks that are working in ship repair and shipbuilding right now, and you know it’s an aging workforce. It’s the same problem you see in in a lot of other industries as well.

“The Navy’s work projections are showing it’s a bit of a down year (in 2024) but sometime in fiscal year 2025 and into 2026, we’re going to need more workers. And it’s always good to be bringing in younger folks, because that’s what makes your industry healthy in the long run.”

Rutherford said that in 2015, the San Diego Military Advisory Council shared a report on San Diego’s Shipbuilding and Repair Ecosystem.

The report said that in 2014, about 12,000 people were employed in the shipbuilding and repair industry cluster and that the Total Gross Regional Product contributed directly by the shipbuilding and repair industry and through its ripple effects was $1.75 billion in San Diego County.

He said the group is currently collecting updated information that will be shared in a report in 2025.