RALEIGH, N.C. – Lew Ebert, president and CEO of the North Carolina Chamber, a nonpartisan business advocacy organization, has announced that the organization, in collaboration with the National Association of Manufacturers, will host a media roundtable to discuss the impact of cuts to defense spending on Wednesday, July 11 from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Held at the North Carolina Chamber, located at 701 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 400 in Raleigh, the event will provide conversation with NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons and Chamber President and CEO Lew Ebert.
The National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) recent report, Defense Spending Cuts: The Impact on Economic Growth and Jobs, highlights the potential impact defense spending cuts under the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 will have on U.S. jobs and economic growth. According to the report, North Carolina is one of the top ten most-impacted states with an estimated 34,200 jobs forecasted to be lost.
“The possibility of losing more than 34,000 North Carolina jobs is deeply concerning,” said Ebert. “This will not only impact manufacturers but businesses across the entire defense sector supply chain, delivering a damaging blow to our state’s economy.”
Nationally, the report’s findings paint a stark picture of the potential harm the BCA budget caps and across-the-board cuts under sequestration will have—a loss of 1,010,000 private sector jobs, including 130,000 manufacturing jobs, by 2014. This job loss will increase the unemployment rate by 0.7 percent and decrease GDP by almost 1 percent by 2014. The report shows that the long-lasting effects of these cuts will be felt by not just by the defense equipment supply chain, but also the everyday Americans who are protected by these products.
“In a fragile economic recovery, policymakers need to take whatever steps necessary to prevent defense cuts that will cost more than one million jobs,” said Timmons. “This report makes it clear that these cuts will punish the businesses that create the cutting-edge products keeping us safe at home and abroad, creating a negative effect on the supply chain between large and small manufacturers. Congress needs to make the tough decisions on spending to address our debt crisis, but these decisions cannot be made at the expense of our economic and national security.”
For an executive summary of the Defense Spending Cuts report, please visit http://bit.ly/LWPU8Q. To view the report in its entirety, visit http://bit.ly/LWQ6oy.
About the North Carolina Chamber:
The North Carolina Chamber is a nonpartisan business advocacy organization that works in the legislative, regulatory and political arenas to proactively drive positive change to ensure that North Carolina is a leading place in the world to do business. At the core of the North Carolina Chamber’s advocacy mission is job creation. Good jobs are a vital component of a thriving North Carolina economy. Strengthening the state’s ability to attract, keep and grow jobs is the Chamber’s highest priority, and central to its effort are three “pillars of a strong future” for North Carolina which include, strong education and workforce development systems, a globally competitive business climate and effective economic development strategies and tools. For more information, visitwww.ncchamber.net.
About the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM):
The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing has a presence in every single congressional district providing good, high-paying jobs. For more information about the Manufacturers or to follow NAM on its Shopfloor blog, Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org.
