In the first three months of this year, military spending grew 15.1% as defense work accounted for nearly 16 percent of the nation's economic growth. This growth is spurred not by tax cuts, Federal Reserve interest rate policies or even a general economic turnaround, but because of the war. The Labor Department does not track defense contractor jobs, but many estimate that the 708,000 jobs created in the past three months are defense-related. For example, the textile and apparel industry, which lost 50,000 jobs last year, gained 2,400 in April and is up 500 through the first four months of 2004. Buy American military requirements are assumed to be driving the textile increases.
See "Across America, War Means Jobs -
Defense Spending Pumps New Life Into Small or Dying Towns", Jonathan Weisman, The Washington Post, May 10, 2004