The American aerospace industry has suffered a lot of shrinkage during the post Cold War period. There has not been a lot of hiring, and one result of this is that the average age of aerospace engineers is 54 while the average age for production (blue-collar) workers is 51. There are currently 702,000 workers in the industry. Older workers are more experienced, but less open to radical new ideas, or working a lot of extra shifts if production must be suddenly boosted. The steady decline of the industry has made it less attractive to new college graduates and people entering the work force.
