It’s been a couple of confusing years as politicians of all stripes claim they will create jobs if elected. And it gets more confusing when certain Republicans claim they will create jobs while saying that government can’t create jobs.
Well Wisconsin (through no fault of its own or its governor) is about to lose 450 jobs that were created by the federal government. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
As its defense business slows, Oshkosh Corp. said Thursday it will lay off 450 production employees in January.
“As Oshkosh and others in the defense industry have discussed on numerous occasions, domestic military vehicle production volumes will decline significantly in 2013 due to the reduction in U.S. Defense budgets and the fact that military spending is returning to peacetime levels,” the company said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, these economic factors require Oshkosh to rebalance its defense production workforce starting in January.”
Now in no way am I suggesting that the federal government ramp up defense spending to save these jobs. And I hope that we don’t see a conflict in the future that will ramp up production of military weapons. And I am pleased to see that Oshkosh Corp. will assist its employees in finding other employment. Considering the lack of skilled workers I would hope any number of area manufacturers would welcome them on board.
But the next big issue: if the automatic sequestration cuts in federal spending occur as scheduled, these 450 jobs will be small potatoes.
Recent Comments