The unemployment numbers released Friday shot up to 6.1 percent nationally, scaring a lot people who had hoped the economy was stabilizing. It drove down the stock market, of course, but it also scared oil traders worried that demand will fall. That sent oil prices down and oil stock prices down.
A falling tide lowers all boats.
Seems Jeff Burkel, chief operating officer for MicroMass Communications, a health care advertising firm, has an image problem with Wichita.
Medical Marketing & Media, a health care marketing business publication, recently published a story on its Career & Salary Survey 2008, in which it is discovered that salaries across the health care marketing industry (read: pharmaceutical reps) have decreased by 3.7 percent — from $133,700 in 2007 to $128,800 this year — causing a shift in hiring and recruitment strategies.
In that story, Burkel is commenting that location can play a key factor in the hiring process for some candidates. Then he’s quoted:
“With our Raleigh location, we get [applicants] that are done with the Northeast scene, and are looking to escape,” he says. That isn’t always the case, however. Some locations are less appealing than others. “If you want to move people to Wichita, KS, forget about it,” says Burkel.
Has Burkel even been to Wichita and seen its unique, extremely prolific and robust health care sector?
His company’s headquarters are in Cary, N.C., and the firm has an office in Morristown, N.J.
Ahem.
I’ll stick with Wichita.