Fox News host Bill Hemmer claimed that job losses due to sequestration “apparently ... did not happen,” ignoring that hundreds of layoffs across industries like national security and education were attributable to sequestration's budget cuts.  

On the February 3 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, host Hemmer took issue with a statement made by President Obama in February 2013 in which he asserted that if sequestration happened, “thousands of Americans who work in fields like national security, education or clean energy are likely to be laid off.” Hemmer replied “so, apparently that did not happen.” 

In fact, a wide range of organizations related to national security were forced to lay off employees, among them defense contractors, workers at a nuclear site, army depot employees, and employees at a company that repairs U.S. Navy ships.

In the field of education, which Obama mentioned, the effects of sequestration included teacher layoffs in states like Florida, Illinois, Minnesota and New Jersey. Valuable educational programs, like Head Start, were unable to get funding, which resulted in widespread teacher job losses.

Another field that was heavily hit by the effects of sequestration was science and medical research, with hundreds of scientists, including those working on cancer and HIV research, laid off due to the resulting budget cuts.