If the federal government is forced to make a half trillion dollars worth of cuts to defense spending in 2013 as part of the automatic deficit reduction required by the folding of the so-called “Super Committee,” it could cost Florida nearly 40,000, jobs according to a university report.
The state would stand to lose the fourth most jobs because of military cuts, behind California, Virginia and Texas, according to a report by Stephen Fuller, the director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Virginia, who has studied federal spending extensively.
Florida is home to several large military installations in multiple services, including Eglin, Tyndall, MacDill and Patrick Air Force Bases, Hurlburt Field, the Pensacola Naval Air Station, Mayport, the naval base in Jacksonville, and the Southern Command headquarters in Miami, as well as several smaller installations.
Fuller estimates the loss of 39,200 military jobs in Florida would mean $2.3 billion in lost earnings and a decrease of $3.4 billion in gross state product.
