WICHITA — Check out this ranking from U.S. News & World Report. It puts Wichita in the top 10 in the nation for jobs — Hah!
Every few years Wichita sucks in a bunch of people who put together those national rankings. They sit in some office in Washington or New York and look at employment rates around the country and what kind of money people make, etc. and Wichita looks darn good. What they don’t fully grasp is that our economy goes up and down about a year after the nation as a whole. If they looked at numbers even 6 months old, Wichita still looks OK. Today, with 9.9 percent unemployment, Wichita doesn’t look so hot.
On the other hand, when Wichita shows up 230th out of 250 on the 2011 list, don’t feel bad about the Peerless Princess of the Plains. Our time is coming.
13 Comments
After I read the article (your link doesn’t work BTW) I generally agree with what was said, and thought it was very complimentary. There will be significant opportunities for growth in the future.
All of us Wichitans are the first to say the economy stinks here. But imagine that everywhere else is in worse economic straits than we are. In comparison, our real estate is solid, our banks are solid, we have a great medical and educational base and we have a pretty talented workforce, albeit 10% are unemployed right now.
All things considered, I agree that for the future we are a top ten city. This community should be proud of that, and many local officials should be using this data to get more jobs to relocate here, taking the sting off of aircraft down cycles. You don’t diversify when you can’t find people to hire. That scenario was less than 12 months ago.
I hope our time is not coming. We did not have the huge run up in real estate values and salaries that the other parts of the country experienced. I feel/hope that we are at the bottom now and will continue to pull into a better economy. Most of our people are working and paying their bills. Hundreds of houses a month are selling. We will still have more aircraft layoffs and it will take years to regain our former position, but other employers are hiring.
If Wichita were to wise up and diversify away from its over-dependence on aircraft our economy would improve. There is no reason wind turbines have to be imported – we can build them here with our existing technology.
“Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind” Dusty Springfield
Oh ye professional scientist/omnipotent windmill guru; a few questions for you.
1) On the windmills that are imported, how much of the manufacturing cost is subsidized by their respective government?
2) Since everything can be manufactured here, why would anything EVER be sent outside the US to be built?
3) What exactly is your rate of return on the manufacture of windmills after all costs are calculated, especially tooling and liabilities?
4) After the 18 month ramp-up to production, in which election cycle would our own governments’ subsidies cease to exist, leaving the company high and dry to compete against the heavily subsidized foreign manufacturers?
I am not remotely interested in the manufacturing of windmills. It is not a cost-effective energy generating platform, and you can see this by how quickly they are falling out of “vogue”.
Manufacturing requires vision, but at times it requires hindsight. History provides a pretty good roadmap on the future of windmills.
“The times, they are a-changing”
jerry – I never said everything can be made here. However, this is a product for which our core competancies come into play favorably.
If you do not want to enter that market you are free not to do so. But, when business is slow … oh well.
I find it rather amusing that so many people here complain when times are tough and expect those of us who are NOT in aircraft to bail them out – especially when many of us HAVE made career changes to keep up with changing times.
You really enjoy dancing, eh?
You’re right. YOU didn’t say everything can be built here. I DID. Answer the questions.
I am not asking for a bailout, and I am not complaining about my company’s situation. I’m pretty proud of it as a matter of fact. Your comments certainly imply otherwise.
This entire thread was simply on a U.S. News and World Report about Wichita being a top ten city for future jobs growth. I agreed with it. Then with your standard blog-killing prose you go off on a tangent about how your frickin windmills are the saviour for this city, which between windmills or Obama is the answer to everyone of your ridiculous diatribes you post here.
I simply asked you some questions (which should also be interpreted as nailing your butt to the wall) and you have no response other to hide behind the curtain and accuse others of doing nothing but asking for a hand-out, or we’re too stupid to not recognize the wonderful promise of prosperity your windmills would bring.
What a wonderful BUSINESS blog. Let’s slam business. Government is the only answer. A complete existence living one grant to another.
THAT is free enterprise at it’s finest. In your world.
Where did I say government? I simply observed that there is a demand out there for a manufactured product that our factories could manufacture. Free enterprise, that is all. I was picking up on what Dan Voorhis noted that we are in a slump that has hit after the article was written and will likely effect us for some time.
BTW – I wouldn’t know about grants. I don’t have any. My last government contract was decades ago – working on chemical warfare defense for the Defense Department. We developed devices to protect our troops from possible chemical agent attack.
jerry – I do not know why you are so cranky. And, as a matter of fact, I really don’t much care. And, while you do not believe wind to be an efficient energy platform there are many in the energy industry who disagree with you – especially for the long term. Wind, along with nuclear, will likely continue to grow over coming decades as fossil fuel declines in the face of irrefutable scientific evidence of its hazards.
Turbines would be but one area of diversification we should be exploring. Light, strong rail could be another. Bullet trains can take a lot of pressure off overcrowded airports.
Jerry you’re slamming pretty hard on a blog that is generally more professional in the comments. We have had a Blue Green alliance that just meet the beginning of the week to identify companies that can start building components. That doesn’t take away from aircraft but gives us another manufacturing direction for our workers.
Wind Turbines may turn out more like solar instead of nuclear but we need to try. There are companies and governments that want to buy.
Yes, I slammed pretty hard. And probably too hard.
My frustrations are with bth, and him alone. I respect his opinions in regards to many issues, Especially items that involve groundwater and geological issues. I will ask questions, and he is kind enough to oblige. I have formed, and changed, some of my opinions based off of his knowledge. We even have common ground, I believe, In our opinion on the transit system here.
This windmill thing has been ongoing for quite awhile between the two of us, not just this thread. Manufacturing is my wheelhouse, so to speak, and would really like to have discussions on what exactly are the problems with not only manufacturing windmills, but the manufacture of other products that should be brought to market in our area.
I would prefer to have an open, frank dialogue on issues. Not ignored or IMO, mocked.
That being said, I will commit a more professional approach. I also would like to to invite bth, Lonny and anyone else willing to discuss potential manufacturing diversity to have lunch with me. My dime.
Thanks Jerry. I feel the same about Ben. And I have gotten carried away myself. Manufacturing is better than the service industry. I didn’t attend the Blue-Green Alliance but several of my building trades did and they evidently are going to talk to companies and tell them what components they can make.
Thanks both. I am not familiar with the blue-green alliance – sounds like they ahve some good ideas. My big thing with manufacturing diversification is to use our core competancies – composites and aerodynamics. Thus my thoughts on wind that requires both. I think rail would be another area – light-weight and ’sleek’ for bullet trains for example.
I am looking for things we can manufacture – not just for Wichita – but for the world. Obviously aviation has been one such industry; however with all the out-sourcing I question whether it will return to its glory days.
Everything I have seen tells me that renewable energy technologies will become increasingly important world-wide. Climate change is real and steps will likely be belatedly made to control CO2 emissions. While carbon sequestration is touted by some that technology is definitely not proven. With our huge wind resources in west Kansas and all up and down the Great Plains SOMEBODY will build the turbines to harvest it. I’d just as soon it be us.
I would especially like to see NIAR look at improvements in design technology to both make the harvesting more efficient and to make them more durable.
I still wonder what the grants isue is all about.
A service sector idea: computer technology/communications etc. (Not making them – networking and using them) With our location in the center of the ocuntry we should be ideal. We have a alrge well-educated ‘techie’ workforce. Our communications and power supplies are stable and plentiful. We should be taking advantage of that.
News item today – Cessna and ‘Winglets’ retrofitting Citation X to make them a better plane. Old news – we have been constantly retrofitting B-52s and tankers to improve them and keep them flying.
So – might there be an opportunity for companies here in Wichita to specialize in developing improvements that can be applied to existing aircraft? That has a downside – the longer existing planes fly the fewer new ones sold. However, from a Wichita perspective that might well be a wash with all the out-sourcing going on with new aircraft anyway.
As I saw at the air show airplanes can last almost forever. But – they need major maintanence and upgrades. An opportunity for Wichita?
jerry – i agther you are in the business. Your thoughts?
bth, you’re comments are right on the money. There are tons of opportunities for those type of modifications on older, existing aircraft. In a strange twist, I do not see that type of opportunity on more modern aircraft (composites).
Those aircraft with composite fuselages are MUCH more difficult to modify, let alone certify (see 787 and some of the local business jets).
I have my own dreams for building business jets, and would love to do it here. I would try to utilize composites as much as I could, but only in secondary structures. I think it is a very important requirement to modify and improve aircraft derivatives as quickly as possible, to get them to market and not deal with 7-10 years of development on clean sheet designs.
I guess more of a Big Dog approach instead of a Boeing approach
Nice to talk to you.