Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Jack Hain from Barrington Research. Please go ahead.
Jack Hain - Barrington Research
Hi, thanks for taking the questions this morning. I was just wondering if you could talk generally about some of the puts and takes you expect to see from the stimulus bill. And in addition, did you see any North American municipal customers putting off orders in either the fourth quarter, or what you've seen so far in the first quarter in expectation of incoming funding from the federal government?
Bill Lambert
Jack, this is Bill Lambert. I'll answer the question, and then I'll ask Joe Bigler to respond, too, since Joe is responsible for North America, and the US stimulus plan or packages are in his area.
First question: the areas where we see an impact are all the areas related to the construction portion of the stimulus plan. So, depending on how you slice and dice this $787 billion package, you get yourself down to maybe $110 billion to $120 billion of that as related to actual construction activities. Some of those activities are shovel ready, and some are perhaps longer term, and begin to take effect in late 2009 or into early 2010.
So, all of those activities, all of those construction related activities, certainly have an impact on MSA. I should say that they have an impact on employment in the US, and as those workers are employed, they are going to need safety equipment, which is and can be beneficial for MSA.
Have we seen certain activities by customers or distributors this year delaying orders in anticipation of the stimulus plan? Not that I am aware of, not directly related to the stimulus plan that I am aware of.
I think the actions we have seen from distributors, whether they would be industrial or construction distributors, in the fourth quarter of 2008 or so far in 2009, are strictly related to the economic environment that they see around them right now and, as I indicated in my comments, their desire to slow their orders and reduce their inventories. Joe, I'll look to you to add any color on what you see with the stimulus plan.
Joe Bigler
Yeah. We're certainly excited about it. We think it will have a favorable impact. As Bill said, particularly in the construction industry where the unemployment rate in that industry is exceeding 18%. And if you take the bill apart, there is about $113 billion that will go to construction. About 10% of that will be released by September of 2009, with the bulk of the spending being released in fiscal 2010, beginning October of this year and running through September of next year.
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