Hello Brevard County Florida: 23,000 expected to lose jobs after space shuttle retirement; Local Unemployment Will Skyrocket

Brevard County Florida, 35 miles east of Orlando, is about to get smacked with a loss of 23,000 jobs on news of Space Shuttle Retirement.

Revised projections now show that about 23,000 workers at and around Kennedy Space Center will lose their jobs because of the shuttles' retirement and the new proposal to cancel the development of new rockets and spacecraft.

That sum includes 9,000 "direct" space jobs and -- conservatively speaking -- 14,000 "indirect" jobs at hotels, restaurants, retail stores and others that depend on activity at the space center, said Lisa Rice, Brevard Workforce president.

The organization's earlier estimate of 7,000 direct jobs reflected just the retirement of the shuttle program. The updated numbers also include the cancellation of Project Constellation and other initiatives as outlined in the president's 2011 budget, Rice said.

"Our unemployment rate is going to skyrocket," she warned Thursday during a five-hour Brevard County Commission space workshop. Much conversation centered on the future of human space launches from KSC, and attendees heaped criticism on Obama's strategy.

Mark Nappi is vice president of launch and recovery systems for United Space Alliance, NASA's prime contractor for shuttle operations. As things stand today, he predicted that more than 4,500 of the company's 5,500 Florida workers will lose their jobs. Geographically speaking, Nappi said 4,850 USA workers live in Brevard, including 3,250 in the northern half of the county.

Commissioners asked what the county can do to recruit commercial launch companies from California, Virginia, Texas and elsewhere.

"The market will drive where space vehicles are launched from," Nappi said. "And if we believe in Florida that we have the birthright to spaceflight operations, we're going to be the Pittsburgh of the steel industry and the Detroit of the car industry."

No Birthright To Spaceflight Operations

One can debate all day whether there are better programs to cut, but Nappi has it correct. Birthright beliefs helped sink Detroit and Pittsburgh.

I send best wishes to those affected, but there is no birthright to government spending. The sooner we get away from that mentality the better.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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