Last year a record number of new manufacturing jobs were created. Will this year bring another record? Well, 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 </b>. 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 <b> 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 </b>. So clearly, the number of new jobs created this year will fall short of last year's record.
The two portions in boldface play the role of the first being a claim that the argument challenges, and the second being a judgment advanced in support of the main conclusion of the argument.