Feb 13, 2012 - General Electric Co. has set a goal to hire 5,000 military veterans during the next five years and will be investing $580 million in an expansion of its aviation business.

The Monday announcement came during a four day event focused on national interest issues including manufacturing and job creation in the United States.

GE's "Hiring Our Heroes" partnership is going to aid in the matching of military veterans and jobs. General Electric's products span a wide spectrum from light bulbs to jet engines and the company has the ability to expand most product lines. They will be teaming up with the US Chamber of Commerce in an effort to sponsor 400 veteran job fairs in 2012. Over 10,000 veterans are presently employed by GE while another 100 US employee reservists are overseas serving their country.

General Electric will also be investing $580 million into an expansion of its aviation business. Their aviation unit will be creating over 400 new aviation-related jobs in manufacturing and research and development. Additionally, GE plans to open 3 new plants in 2013 in Dayton, Ohio, Auburn, Alabama, and Ellisville, Mississippi. GE said that the new plants are a step toward its goals of creating or rebuilding 16 facilities and more than 12,000 new jobs.

Currently, GE is the world's largest manufacturer of jet engines. They are expecting a growth in commercial and military jet engine deliveries to go from 3,000 in 2011 to 3,400 in 2012, and 3,800 in 2013.

These new promises are an effort to "strengthen America's global competitiveness by building a more highly skilled workforce, lowering healthcare costs, and supporting the integration of the nation's veterans into the workforce," GE said.

New jobs in the aviation industry is a move forward in a landscape of rebounding air travel enthusiasm. Declining aircraft re-sale values combined with raising costs of production, higher fuel costs, and less discretionary spending ability have provided a turbulent market for the industry to navigate. Positive moves such as this one by GE and others by Boeing and Airbus could help business aviation climb to new heights in the future.

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