The demand for energy ? be it derived from fossil fuel, nuclear, solar, wind, water, and/or other sources ? continues to grow during bad times and good. When FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) came into power, the WPA was the principal tool of his administration to turn the economy around (which had foundered then because investors borrowed money to buy stocks they couldn't afford, rather than homes, but the result was the same).

There are a lot of unemployed people from the engineering & construction (E&C) industry that could be put to work in all manner of ways that would enhance the country's energy resources as well as in rebuilding the country's infrastructure (such as the interstate highway system which was put into place during the Eisenhower era).

The possibilities for the E&C companies should not be scoffed at, since the only other thing that worked better than the WPA in turning the economy around back then was WWII. All the E&C companies would benefit from such an environment, but URS (URS) is uniquely structured to cover almost all the bases.

COMMERCIAL AEROSPACE

At the end of the third quarter of 2008, Airbus and Boeing (BA) reported a combined total of 7,534 aircraft in backlog and, at that time, they were delivering at an annualized rate of 752 aircraft; on that basis, it would take some 10 years to deliver all the aircraft on order. Of the stated backlog, 458 shipsets were for the Airbus A350 XWB and 895 were for the Boeing 787, neither of which is yet in production (787 deliveries may now not start before the next decade, while A350 deliveries could start by the middle of the next decade).

Complicating matters is the on-going effect of the recently-settled machinists (IAM) strike against Boeing, as well as the current threat by that company's white-collar engineers and technical employees (who are members of SPEEA) to go on strike early in 2009, which could shut Boeing down entirely?again!

In addition, there is historical evidence that whenever Boeing comes out with a new aircraft type (such as the 787), the stocks of Boeing and its principal suppliers go into hibernation between the first announced order and the first successful delivery to an airline.

DEFENSE

The budget requests for defense and related expenditures for fiscal 2009 are: DoD = $651.2 billion; DoHS = $50.5 billion; NASA = $17.6 billion; Secret = $? The known requests total $719.3 billion. How much of this amount is approved and which programs will be allowed to go forward is the challenge for the next administration.

However, the current Defense Secretary has voiced concern that we are preparing for the wrong types of engagements and therefore must reorder our priorities. Consequently, there may be some companies that are relatively unheralded within the defense establishment that could receive significant military work.

The president-elect does not agree with the current president as to how defense spending should be handled, so at this point there is no real certainty as to which programs will go forward with vigor. Nevertheless, it's a historical reality that, after every major skirmish since WWII (i.e., Korea and Viet Nam), the country's direction with respect to defense spending has been altered. Whatever the new path might be, it will take time to figure it all out.

John Nelson Simon is a senior analyst covering the Engineering & Construction, Commericial Aerospace and Defense sectors for Zacks Equity Research.