Europe’s defense boom: new jobs are creating divisions in ‘boomtowns’

Defense industry investment in Europe, intended to revive depressed small towns, is instead generating divisions and discontent among local residents.

This is reported by The Wall Street Journal, which describes the situation in the British town of Barrow-in-Furness and the French town of Bergerac.

To describe such communities, the WSJ uses the term “boomtown” — a town experiencing sudden and rapid growth in population and economy.

In Barrow-in-Furness, an impoverished shipbuilding town in northwest England, the British government awarded defense company BAE Systems a contract worth approximately €4.7 billion to build up to 12 AUKUS-class nuclear submarines. The order was placed under the 2021 agreement with the United States and Australia. As a result, BAE’s workforce in Barrow has grown by around 5,000 people and now stands at 14,000 employees.

However, the salaries and benefits offered by BAE are luring workers away from other industries, leaving the town short of mechanics, driving instructors, and nurses. The sudden influx of money and workers has triggered a sharp rise in property prices.

“We have weapons of mass destruction but no plasterers,” the manager of a local restaurant told the publication.

A similar picture is emerging in Bergerac — a French town known for its wines and its history stretching back to the Middle Ages. Following the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, explosives manufacturer Eurenco invested €200 million in reviving production at a government facility on the outskirts of the town. The plant’s workforce grew from 200 to 600 employees, and its annual revenue tripled — from €190 million to €580 million.

Nevertheless, local officials note that Bergerac has so far seen little of that money. Many Eurenco employees commute from other towns, and a significant portion of the production process is automated or requires specialized engineering skills that are not available locally. Residents have felt the risks more than the benefits: in 2022, an explosion at the plant injured eight people, and unauthorized drones were spotted over the facility.

“I would prefer that jobs were created in schools and hospitals, that money was invested in healthcare and education,” Mathieu Bran, co-chair of a local community cultural center, told the WSJ.

The WSJ concludes that Europe’s defense boom is creating a headache for politicians trying to convince voters of the need to increase military spending to counter Russia and China — often at the expense of social spending.