France’s Thales Plans to Hire 12,000 As Defense Orders Surge

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(Bloomberg) — French defense company Thales SA plans to hire 12,000 new workers this year, boosting total headcount by about 4,000 after natural attrition, to reflect demand driven higher by Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

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About 40% of the recruits will work on research and development, in areas that include AI, software engineering, cybersecurity and biometrics, the company said in a statement. 

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On the 12,000 hires, 5,500 will be based in France and 3,340 in the rest of Europe, including the UK. Others will be located in the US, Canada, Asia and Australia. 

“We are focused on defense, aerospace and security, and these three pillars offer very significant growth potential,” Thales human resources head Clement de Villepin told reporters. “Our markets and customers are asking us to accelerate in these three pillars,” he said. 

Paris-based Thales had an estimated 77,000 employees at the end of 2022. It added 11,500 new hires last year. Thales shares are up 12% for the year to date and trading at a record high. 

Russia’s war in Ukraine has led many countries, including France, to pursue sharp increases in military and security spending to replace or upgrade equipment. 

In January, France announced it’s planning to allocate 400 billion euros ($433 billion) to defense spending between 2024 and 2030, up from 295 billion in the 2019-2025 period. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago a special fund worth €100 billion to finance the rebuilding of the country’s military in coming years.