Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri is planning to hire up to 1,500 workers in the U.S., amid crippling labor shortages and increased global defense spending. The state-owned company has been present in the US since 1942, and is benefiting from increased demand across its three core businesses - cruise ships, warships, and submarines - as Western countries seek to modernize their armies. 

“People are waking up all of the sudden,” Chief Executive Pierroberto Folgiero said. “Unfortunately heavy industry is very difficult to start, it’s a matter of supply chains and workers.” Fincantieri owns three shipyards in Wisconsin, including Marinette Marine, along the Menominee River, where it builds combat ships, frigates and mine countermeasures ships for the U.S. Navy, among other types of vessels.