Bath Iron Works — a $2.5B economic driver — now tackling workforce challenges
Photo / Courtesy, Bath Iron Works
Bath Iron Works’ economic impact is up, but finding workers remains a concern at the shipyard.
Economic activity generated by Bath Iron Works increased from $1.8 billion during 2021 to $2.5 billion last year, according to an analysis released this week by the shipyard.
The workforce and payroll are also up, from 6,500 employees and $380 million in 2021 to 6,700 and $447 million at the start of 2023.
The economic impact analysis was prepared by Ryan Wallace of Wallace Economic Advisors and former director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Southern Maine.
BIW, founded in 1884 and based on the Kennebec River in Bath, manufactures U.S. Navy destroyers. The yard is part of Reston, Va.-based defense contractor General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) and ranks as Maine’s fourth-largest private-sector employer in the 2024 Mainebiz Book of Lists.
Recruitment
Overall, BIW has sharply increased its investments in recruiting, training and retaining shipbuilders, according to the report.
The shipyard invested $11 million in recruiting new workers between 2016 and 2023, and over the past five years spent $90 million on training — more than twice the amount during the prior five years.
The study also showed the benefits of partnering with the Maine Community College System, noting that the retention rate for employees completing pre-hire training at the community colleges is 93%.
“Bath Iron Works’ ability to be a major driver in the state’s manufacturing economy depends on attracting, training and retaining the workers who make Bath-built best-built,” said Charles Krugh, BIW’s president. “We have found that we need to leverage Maine’s secondary educational system to provide them additional training.”
Krugh said that BIW’s entry-level jobs have the potential to lead to “significant earnings and professional growth over time.”
Recruitment efforts at the shipyard have included:
- Raising the profile of the varied career opportunities shipbuilding offers in the trades and STEM fields.
- Developing career discovery programming for Maine high school students and expanded skilled trades training, including additional outreach to populations historically underrepresented in shipbuilding.
- Leveraging BIW’s hiring needs to attract new residents and talent by promoting living in Maine, including proximity to Portland and Boston, and by targeting the military and veteran community and engineering degree programs in regional institutions.
- Identifying opportunities for expansion by promoting workforce development, asset maintenance and infrastructure development.
- Collaborating with Maine businesses, including others in the shipbuilding industry, on support for workforce housing, childcare and transportation through direct investment, tax credits and other incentives.
- Supporting and developing existing and future in-state vendors by offering technical assistance and training.
Multiplier effect
Spending by BIW and its employees support additional economic activity, so the total economic output including multiplier effects was $2.5 billion in 2023 and supported a total of 14,200 jobs in Maine.
The company is investing millions of dollars in facility upgrades, including a new kitting terminal, pier support center, trades storage building, security facilities and pier reconstruction. The projects use primarily local contractors.
Spending also includes recruitment and training, employee wages and purchases from Maine businesses. Training spending includes safety training, skills training, on-the-job training and wages for employees while they learn specialty shipbuilding skills.
In 2021, the shipyard arranged for an independent analysis, structured around a five-year lookback, to assess BIW’s overall economic contribution to the state. This year’s follow-up analysis expanded the scope of the report to explore investments in workforce development more closely.
Child care, housing
The report notes that BIW’s ability to continue will depend in large part on partnerships not just in training, but in overcoming obstacles such as access to child care, transportation and affordability of both housing and education.
“We are working closely with community groups, the U.S. Navy and our congressional delegation to overcome some of the current challenges to workforce participation,” Krugh said.
“At the same time, we are investing in important quality-of-life improvements and modernization in the workplace to attract, retain and provide long-term opportunity to the men and women who are essential to the nation’s critical shipbuilding capacity.”
Initiatives are in the works to address obstacles.
Earlier this year, BIW said that initiatives to be supported by U.S. Navy funding of more than $34 million will include funding 85 new housing units for BIW workers closer to the shipyard, providing 150 additional year-round child care slots for BIW workers, and offering free bus services for BIW employees in the Bath and Brunswick areas.
There’s been subsequent progress on child care. BIW and the Bath Area Family YMCA announced a partnership to expand access to child care for midcoast families. The partnership will provide 150 spaces to the children of BIW employees across two YMCA centers in Bath and Brunswick.
To accommodate this significant expansion in the organization’s child care program, the YMCA has purchased a property previously owned by Martin’s Point Health Care at 6 Farley Road in Brunswick to renovate into a 10-classroom childhood education center
Enrollment on the Farley Road facility is expected to begin in January for a target opening of September 2025.
Last year, BIW began working with Western Maine Transportation Services in Auburn to expand commuter bus transportation between Lewiston and Bath, in order to make it easier and more affordable for residents of Lewiston, Auburn and Lisbon Falls to get to jobs at BIW.
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