Electric Boat looking to increase RI workforce

January 25, 2016 6:40 pm

By: Rebecca Turco

Email: rturco@abc6.com

WARWICK, R.I. – Electric Boat is planning to increase its workforce, mostly in Rhode Island and Connecticut, by 4,000 workers before 2030.

This year, the U.S. Navy contractor plans on hiring 300 more people at its Quonset Point facility, and 1,500 more by 2030 to help build a new class of ballistic missile submarines.

These jobs require extensive training and education. So the question becomes: will Rhode Island have enough people to fill these spots?

"We are under a great deal of pressure to make sure that when the employers are saying, ‘okay, we’re ready to hire 300 welders or 400 engineers or 500 people that know robotics,’ they’re going to find them in Rhode Island," said Governor Gina Raimondo. She outlined workforce training initiatives, like those at CCRI and New England Tech, and acknowledged that more work will need to be done.

Then, there is the issue of federal funding. Electric Boat is hoping to increase its funding from $7.2 billion this fiscal year to more than $8 billion in 2017.

Rhode Island’s congressional delegation is seemingly united in plans to help make that happen. "We have to consider this bipartisan effort to fund submarines because they’re the most, I think, critical aspect of our national security,” explained U.S. Senator Jack Reed.

U.S. Representative Jim Langevin also echoed the need for more training programs to “[M]ake sure the workforce is growing robustly because this is an exceptionally high number of people that [Electric Boat] has to hire over the next couple of years.”

Electric Boat president Jeffrey Geiger cautioned the employment projections could vary depending on what Congress decides.

Roughly a third of workers at Electric Boat’s headquarters in Connecticut are Rhode Islanders.