Insights
Hiring up to 30,000 people a year: aerospace’s employer branding challenge
According to GIFAS, the French aerospace industry association, the sector hired 29,000 people in 2024 and an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 in 2025. It employs 222,000 people directly, up 5%, and its supply-chain workforce now exceeds 2019 levels.
Large groups have resources; SMEs need a brand
Major primes have well-known brands, recruitment teams and school partnerships. Supply-chain SMEs and mid-caps hire the same profiles (machinists, technicians, engineers) with far less visibility. Their potential edge: closeness, varied work, faster progression. But they have to say it and show it.
What works
- Showing real jobs and real people, rather than products.
- Saying concretely what you offer: training, career paths, conditions, purpose.
- Being where candidates look: a clear careers page, LinkedIn, schools, job fairs.
- Handling the defence question soberly when it arises: mission before imagery.
What doesn’t
- Generic job ads identical to competitors’.
- A careers page that lists vacancies without saying anything about the company.
- Communications that promise more than the company actually offers.
Source: GIFAS, New Year press release, 8 January 2026.
Prepared with the help of AI tools, reviewed and approved by the author.
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