First, 7,500 is more than "a couple thousand", but even a couple thousand jobs has more impact than just the direct impact of "just a couple thousand jobs" -- u

First, 7,500 is more than "a couple thousand", but even a couple thousand jobs has more impact than just the direct impact of "just a couple thousand jobs" -- unemployed people buy a lot less products and services than employed people - and they often need public assistance, so the public burden is even higher - loss of income tax plus welfare payments. And while many of them will eventually get new jobs, it's going to take some retraining (not a whole lot of demand for train engineers these days), and time.