Federal Spending Cuts Would Boost Maryland Jobless Rate

A new study shows Maryland's unemployment rate would nearly double -- erasing more than a decade's worth of job expansion -- if federal spending is cut by 22 percent as recommended by President Obama's deficit commission.

Maryland would suffer a loss of 150,000 out of roughly 3 million jobs under the commission's recommendations to cut procurements, grants, salaries and wages, according to an economic model built by the Baltimore consulting firm Sage Policy Group. The state's unemployment rate would rise to nearly 12 percent from 7 percent.

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