WICHITA — Christmas in Sedgwick County was sort of backwards last year. According to the state department of revenue, November saw a surge in sales, up nearly 10 percent from November of 2010. But December was actually down slightly from 2010. Together, the two-month-long holiday season was up a strong, but not spectacular 4.2 percent from the year before.
Anxiety drove merchants to discount heavily in October and November on the theory that if people spent big early, they were more likely to spend more overall. Obviously, people responded. But the the end result wasn’t all that big, at least in Wichita, which make you wonder if they just robbed December sales with heavy November markdowns.
WICHITA — Call me a cynic, but the American Petroleum Institute is calling a news conference tomorrow to offer a plan for what President Obama can do to help consumers get lower gas prices. Well, I’m guessing it’s another opportunity to demand that Obama relax drilling regulations. I doubt it will be telling oil companies to reduce profit levels or for the government to crack down on speculators, or some other strategy to lower prices.
API President Jack Gerard will also release a new national poll about what voters think about higher energy taxes. One guess on what that is.
Yet another indication that the local economy seems to be on the right path: Koch Industries is hosting a job fair March 31 in hopes of filling more than 50 information technology positions within several Koch companies in Wichita.
The job fair will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Wichita, 400 W. Waterman, in the Riverview Ballroom. Representatives from Koch Business Solutions, Koch Fertilizer and Flint Hills Resources will be there.
Openings include business systems analyst; applications systems analyst; software development analyst; IT customer support; database administrator; infrastructure services, and technical project manager. Most positions will require at least two years of information technology experience and a bachelor’s degree in a related field. More information about the job fair, including position descriptions and more detailed job requirements can be found at www.kochcareers.com/ITfair.
To apply for a job, candidates must complete an online application on the website. Applications will not be available at the fair.