The government shutdown continues, as do the furloughs affecting civilian employees at Wright-Patterson. One estimate has put the economic impact at $5 million per furlough day that the region loses. Nearly 9,000 base employees are currently out of work.
The news in the short-term is certainly not good. Michael Gessel with the Dayton Development Coalition says to put that into perspective, "it would be the same economic impact if LexisNexis, Honda and AK Steel closed down and let everybody off."
Dayton could suffer in the future, too, as a result. Gessel says because the region is tied to the federal government, the region uses Wright-Patt as a lure to attract companies.
"Many companies will locate in Dayton because they want to be near that. They want to be near the purchasing power of the Air Force," says Gessel. "So, a lot of our recruiting is tied around those claims and if that luster diminishes, so does the power of those recruiting tools."
He adds that the severity of the impact will all depend on how long the shutdown continues, and with neither party in Congress budging, it’s becoming more likely it could last several weeks.