Large Va. job cuts possible

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) - Virginia is one of the three states that would suffer most if leaders in Washington, D.C. don't come up with a budget compromise during the next six months, and it could cost Virginia up to 114,000 jobs in 2014 alone.

National Association of Manufacturers (N.A.M.) published the study June 21, and estimated that the private sector could lose 750,000 jobs, 100,000 of which would be manufacturing jobs.

With a large shipbuilding and repair industry in Hampton Roads, the jobs cuts could affect southeast Virginia significantly.

The NAM study says Newport News Shipbuilding, one of the largest employers in Virginia  would have to reduce their workforce by a little more than three percent by 2014.

"There [are] tens of thousands of jobs at risk in Hampton Roads if in fact we're going to lose this amount of federal spending," CEO and President of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Barry DuVal said.

The Department of Defense had already agreed to a nearly half-trillion-dollar cut over the next decade but legislation approved last year would force the Department of Defense to slash the budget by twice that amount.

"Unfortunately this Budget Control Act of 2011 puts automatic across-the-board cuts into place," DuVal said.  "Someone recently referenced it as 'trying to do brain surgery with a chainsaw.'"

And the job cuts aren't just limited to the defense industry.

"There's the barber shops.  There's the retail outlets.  There's the restaurateurs that all get impacted when you see a decrease,"Hampton Roads Planning District Commission economist Greg Grootendorst said.

According to the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, one out of five jobs in the state are connected to defense, landing Virginia in the study's top three list of states that would suffer the most.

"Virginia alone, according to [the study] will lose approximately 114,000 jobs in the year 2014," DuVal said.

But Grootendorst said it's too soon to start counting the jobs that will be lost from reduced defense spending, sequestered budget or not.

"It is really unknown how that process will take place or what the effect will be," Grootendorst said.