Aerospace industry does well in 2008 despite poor economic climate

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As this article shows. It's easier to avoid economic downturns that other industries face when your industry is so closely tied to national security / prestige, and when another large source of income comes from customers that by definition have to be super rich in the first place (private space tourists/participants that can pay $20 million per flight, and all the others that will be paying $100,000 for a short flight slightly above the edge of space through Virgin Galactic).

The article gives the following numbers:

Aerospace sales are on pace to reach $204 billion for 2008. This is an increase of 2.1 percent - a lower rate than in recent years, but a record sales figure for the industry for the fifth consecutive year.

The industry will also continue to post very strong export numbers, reaching $99.2 billion for the year. That fuels a critically important foreign trade surplus of about $61 billion, almost exactly the figure the industry logged in 2007. It is the largest trade surplus of any U.S. manufacturing sector.

Employment also remained solid, with an average workforce that will reach 655,500 for the year. The total was 657,700 in figures released in September. The average is about 10,000 more than the average for 2007.

AIA is forecasting modest sales growth for 2009. Sales should reach $214 billion, a figure that is about 2.2 percent more than the total the industry would have achieved this year had a work stoppage not impacted the 2008 bottom line. Blakey acknowledged we are in extremely volatile economic times that could affect the forecast in the coming year.