Click to enlargeRemember how the city and its economist said this recession won’t be as bad as the last one because in the last one Boeing was slashing jobs? But then Robert Gates proposed a budget that would jeopardize a majority of the giant’s 9,000 local defense industry jobs. Well, things just managed to get a little grimmer, as Boeing announced that a reduction in orders will lead it to cut commercial jet production and increase layoffs beyond the 4.500 it had announced earlier this year. And, says the story in the Seattle Times, industry experts expect more: “Rob Stallard, a financial analyst with Macquarie Research, cited ‘a widespread expectation that this is just the first of several cuts for this downcycle'”.