Base Closings Cost Nearly 130,000 Jobs

The four rounds of base closings and realignments that the Defense Department conducted from 1988-1995 resulted in the loss of nearly 130,000 on-base jobs, the Government Accountability Office has reported (GAO-05-138). It estimated that due in large part to redevelopment of the facilities and their land, about 72 percent of those jobs have been replaced, 10 percentage points higher than a GAO estimate in 2002. The figures do not include the job losses that may have occurred elsewhere in a community, nor do they capture jobs created from other economic activity in the area, said GAO. The extent of potential job losses—both among civilian employees and in the local communities—is a major consideration in arguments over base closings, another round of which is scheduled to begin this year with a special commission’s work that, like the prior rounds, will be presented to Congress for an up or down vote.