Nearly half of the estimated 2.14 million US jobs that could be lost in 2013 due to budget sequestration would come from small businesses, according to new analysis supported by the Aerospace Industries Association. This new research updates the AIA-chartered study released in July by George Mason University economist Stephen Fuller that projected the nationwide job losses due to sequestration’s severe federal spending cuts. Fuller’s new research estimates that 956,181 of the lost jobs would come from companies with 500 or fewer employees. “This is a crucial finding given the importance of small business job creation to the economy and their role as sources of innovation for national defense,” stated Fuller in a Sept. 20 release posted at the website of Second to None, an AIA-funded public education and action campaign. “At a time when our leaders are calling for policies to help small businesses boost their capacity for job creation, sequestration threatens to drain the economy of a vital source of economic growth and innovation,” added AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey in a Sept. 20 release.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
