Last year a record number of new manufacturing jobs were created  Will this year bring another record  Well, a new manufacturing job is created either within an existing company or by the start-up of a new company  Within existing firms, new jobs have been created this year at well below last year' s record pace  At the same time, there is considerable evidence that the number of new companies starting up will be no higher this year than it was last year, and surely <b> the new companies starting up this year will create no more jobs per company than did last year' s start-ups </b>
Clearly, it can be concluded that <b> the number of new jobs created this year will fall short of last year' s record </b>
The first is an objection that the argument rejects; the second is the main conclusion of the argument.