Last year a record number of new manufacturing jobs were created  Will this year bring another record  Well, <b> any new manufacturing job is created either within an existing company or by the start-up of a new company  </b>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 there is no reason to think that the new companies starting up this year will create more jobs per company than did last year's start-ups
So clearly, <b> the number of new jobs created this year will fall short of last year's record
The first is presented as an obvious truth on which the argument is based; the second is the main conclusion of the argument.