After such a strong fourth quarter, there seemed no place to go but down. Orders dropped $6.5 billion, sales fell $2.7 billion, and military exports declined $140 million to an even $2 billion. Still, profits jumped up 24% and employment and civil exports reached their highest levels since 2002. First-to-fourth-quarter comparisons are inherently misleading given the year-end push to book orders and sales. Sales in the first quarter were at their second highest level ever and orders topped the prior two year's starting quarters.

In Billions of Current Dollars	1Q 2005	4Q 2004	% Change 4Q04 to 1Q05	1Q 2004	2004 Year-End	2003 Year-End
Aerospace Sales	$46.14	$48.82	-5.5%	$43.96	$184.42	$171.71
Profits	$2.72	$2.19	24.0%	$2.27	$9.50	$7.24
Orders	$40.21	$46.73	-14.0%	$39.34	$164.88	$147.74
Exports--Total	$14.44	$14.56	-0.8%	$14.01	$56.82	$52.50
Exports--Civil	$12.44	$12.42	0.2%	$11.56	$47.33	$44.06
Exports--Military	$2.00	$2.14	-6.8%	$2.45	$9.49	$8.44
Employment (in thousands)	605	604	0.1%	581	607	583

For more information about AIA's Statistics, please contact stats@aia-aerospace.org.