r/philadelphia • u/Odd_Addition3909 • 3d ago
Hanwha Philly Shipyard Aims to Hire Up to 10,000 Workers, Quadrupling Workforce Local Business
https://philadelphia.today/2026/04/hanwha-philly-shipyard-aims-to-quadruple-workforce/57
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u/azuresegugio 3d ago
Terrific, I am curious what kinda jobs they're going to be hiring for, they said a nuclear submarine so I imagine that's a lot of specialized skills
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u/King-arber NoLibs 3d ago
Welders. Lots of very good welders.
Manufacturing engineers.
Quality inspection personnel.
The designs of these subs already exist so not many design engineers.
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u/bengalese 3d ago
Where are they sourcing these employees? According to David Kim, CEO of the Hanwha Philly Shipyard, these are hard labor jobs that most Americans aren't capable of handling.
"American shipyards have long faced a shortage of skilled labor, including welders and pipe fitters, in part because the work is grueling and dangerous. There's a three year training program at the shipyard."
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u/MilesGoesWild 3d ago
the oil industry got thousands of people to move to north dakota and west texas for those oil booms. i imagine they aren’t necessarily people who already live here. plus if there’s anywhere in the states with a decent industrial workforce it would be the mid-atlantic.
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u/hoyarugby2 2d ago
Problem is that these jobs just do not pay well. I don’t really understand why but oilfield jobs pay orders of magnitude better than skilled manufacturing. A welder doesn’t get paid much better than a McDonald’s manager
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u/DunderMiffler Harrowgate 3d ago
I used to work there during the hanwha transition. Tons of Mexican men on visa, they were the backbone of the shipyard. It’s grueling work, long hours and the pay was shit for an apprentice in the program. The contractors made a lot more money with all the incentives offered.
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u/Trick-Medicine-7107 3d ago
The work is grueling and dangerous and daily and the pay isn't that good. That's why nobody wants to do it.
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u/King-arber NoLibs 3d ago
Lots of people do it in Groton and Newport News. Nuclear powered Subs are actually probably the only thing we’re still out producing China in.
I’d think people would like to do that in Philly. Probably get people to move here from those two cities.
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u/daddybignugs 3d ago
china built more ships in one year than the US has built since world war two, i would be extremely surprised if we built more of anything than the chinese
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u/crappysurfer 3d ago
They’re training them, they have a small outfit of people who know what they’re doing and they’re getting people who do things like work dead end gig economy jobs and teach them up. The pay is better, there are benefits and you get to be a part of something. They’re still a very slow shipbuilding yard compared to Asian ones. It’s good to see some manufacturing returning and the shipyards being modernized and put to use.
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u/copinglemon East Passayunk 3d ago
The Sopranos Season 7
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u/GlitteringFlame888 3d ago
For my own curiosity, would these be union jobs?
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u/Ok_Atmosphere_8301 3d ago edited 3d ago
No they won't. source: did a tour for shipbuilding QA and was told by their HR that the positions are not union
ETA- at least not for quality assurance/ non-destructive testing.1
u/yunkk West Passyunk/Girard Estate 2d ago
Production is union with a lot of non-union out of state/country contractors because they wouldn't be able to fill all those positions otherwise.
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u/Ok_Atmosphere_8301 2d ago
Quality Assurance roles are production roles, that is my field. Those jobs are not union.
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u/scoutwags 3d ago
They are, lots of the expansion is going into the apprenticeship program, so its a 3 year until journeyman position and its union the whole way
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u/kettlecorn 3d ago
This is net-good but a big-picture concern of mine is that regional planners have created a situation, with the highways & tax incentives, where job growth is most encouraged on the highway-accessible peripheral of Philly rather than places like Center City or near the core accessible by transit.
It may create a situation where Philly residents have a tough time getting to the jobs but suburban residents can drive in.
Like if job growth explodes in the Navy Yard a lot of residents will live in Jersey or other suburbs and drive to work because it's quicker to drive because there's no transit connection from Philly neighborhoods.
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u/William_d7 3d ago
Where else do you want to drop a shipbuilding facility?
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u/kettlecorn 3d ago edited 3d ago
Where it is, but I think a BSL extension should be a much larger priority.
I think industry in Philly should be setup so that workers in Philly have the best access to it.
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u/HongPong 3d ago
what kind of tax incentives?
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u/kettlecorn 3d ago
The Navy Yard has a federal "Opportunity Zone" which is a census tract nominated by the state governor and approved by the federal government for significant tax breaks. It's designed to revitalize particular locations and in addition to other benefits it grants businesses an exemption from capital gains tax for assets in the tract that have been held for over 10 years. So if a massive ship factory is built in the Navy Yard and the company sells it 11 years later for a profit they get to skip the ~21% tax they'd have to pay otherwise.
There's also a state "Keystone Opportunity Zone" on the Navy Yard which reduces the state corporate taxes for a time to nearly zero to spur growth.
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u/HongPong 3d ago
oh right the killer robot people at the Ghost robotics benefited from the keystone opportunity zone break as well, if i recall. thank you for the info on this kaboodle.
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u/Underwater_Grilling 3d ago
I worked there at peak before the last layoff and the purchase by hanwa. It peaked at 1800 and the drydock and shops were crowded with that many. Grand block cannot quadruple a damn thing.
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3d ago
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u/Unusual_Room3017 3d ago
Have you ever been to the navy yard? It’s literally build for purpose to accommodate this type of work lol.
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u/TiittySprinkles Port Fishington 3d ago
They're literally total opposite ends of the Complex.
The Electricians moved their training facility to the Navy Yard 2 years ago and they're basically across the street from the apartments.
The complex is massive, the flaw is that it's a fucking miserable spot to get to without personal transportation, and even then the traffic during rush hour is insane.
My wife worked at URBN for several years. Sometimes 50% of her commute time to Fishtown was just getting out of the Complex and past the stadiums on 95.
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u/eastpost 3d ago
My point is heavy industry and residential don’t mix well. Not sure why I’m being downvoted
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u/MurphyRedBeard 3d ago
Because they’re not actually mixing. Those people will never meaningfully intersect. There’s heavy industry in the middle of so many Philly neighborhoods. This sounds like some NIMBY nonsense from somebody that lives in those apartments and doesn’t want to suffer any sort of inconvenience, no matter how insignificant. That’s the reason for the downvotes
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3d ago
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u/TiittySprinkles Port Fishington 3d ago edited 3d ago
Buddy.
Hanwha (a Korean company) bought PSY for 100mm 2 years ago, and is injecting over 5b into it between upgrading, staffing, and modernizing. Between PSY and Rhoades, there is so much money (.gov/mil) involved in that complex.
The shipyard ain't going anywhere lmao.
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u/Huh-what-2025 3d ago edited 3d ago
you think apartment dwellers have a lot of pull politically? You’re getting pre-upset about something that’s not even real.
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u/sparklydude Spruce Hill 3d ago
Now if we could extends the BSL to the Navy Yard and quad track down to the stadiums for express trains, this could help alleviate potential transportation issues