Submarine-maker Electric Boat convened its annual legislative update for Connecticut business leaders and legislators in Groton on Monday. The key message: “We’re hiring.”
President Kevin Graney said Electric Boat employed an additional 3,900 new staff in 2022, and now they’re looking for more.
“We’re going to continue to hire for the foreseeable future and in 2023 we hope to welcome an additional 5,000 employees to our team, so this is the highest rate of hiring in our history,” Graney said.
The majority of new hires work in operations; about 25% were engineers and designers, including 20% of the graduating class from the University of Connecticut last year, according to Graney. The remaining 22% of new hires in 2022 were in our support functions.
Electric Boat has received billions in federal funding for submarines and plans to spend over $1 billion across the state over 5 years as part of their supply chain. Graney said that has and will benefit Connecticut suppliers and small businesses who manufacture parts for their submarines.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) underscored the importance of submarine building and the defense sector in the U.S. because of threats from China and Russia.
“We face as a nation the biggest threat to our defense industrial base and the biggest challenge since World War II,” Blumenthal said. “We have to do more stuff in production. We have to make more artillery, ammunition, drones, tanks, armed vehicles than since World War II.”
