From Savannah River Site furloughs 2,000 workers at SavannahNow:
About 2,000 workers at the Savannah River Site near Aiken will be working reduced schedules starting next month because of the federal budget cuts. Other employees will be laid off. […]
Company president and CEO Dwayne Wilson says workers will be notified by March 15 if they are among those whose work-week will be reduced from 40 hours to 32 hours per week.
I’ve been writing regularly in recent columns and blog posts about the very real effects of the sequester. Many Americans won’t notice the cuts to federal discretionary spending, but many federal employees and the communities in which they live are going to be hit hard in the coming weeks and months.
The effects will be most serious in areas near large federal facilities — defense installations, national parks, and the like.
The furloughs at the Savannah River Site will obviously cut the income for many individuals, which will translate into reduced consumer spending and other stresses throughout the Augusta area. While much of Georgia has added jobs over the past year, the Augusta-Aiken metro area lost 2,100 jobs in 2012. It looks like 2013 will begin with some significant job losses too.
