New layoffs in Wichita and Kansas appear to be slowing to a halt. New numbers released today by the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas show that the number of laid off workers it is handling is up in November, but only about 2 percent, from October. The biggest percentage increase (7 percent) came in service sector, which makes sense. Those companies tend to feed off local manufacturers for business, and they would feel the squeeze later and lay off later. But these companies are often small and wouldn’t go to the workforce alliance, which means this number is likely underreporting the real number of service sector layoffs all along.
In Kansas, generally, which hasn’t been hit as bad as Wichita, the number of initial claims for unemployment has leveled off since July and ongoing claims has been falling since then. It could mean that some of the unemployed are finding jobs faster than new ones are claiming unemployment. That would be good news.
Did you read Bill Wilson’s previous blog? Public ownership of newspapers? Leaving aside the huge issues of journalistic independence and acting as a watchdog on democracy, what must the Tea Party crowd think about this? They’re already livid at the media, and now their tax dollars are being used to subsidize it. That’s got to be 10-times worse than Citibank or General Motors. Talk about poking a hornets’ nest.
Wow. That’s all I’ve got to say.
Got a call from the folks representing Potbelly a couple weeks ago. Potbelly is trying to find franchisees in the area. They complained gently about my post from Oct. 28. They thought I’d been a bit harsh in some of my words. I had implied that their brand (the look, feel and culture of the company) was a matter of calculation, rather than an authentic outflow of the original founder’s creativity.
After some thought, I agreed with them. It’s easy to be cynical about large restaurant chains, with their market-tested look, menu and, for many of them, attempt to convey authenticity through a cheerful story of the founder’s history and high ideals. The result, too often, is a depressing sameness and mediocrity among chains.
But, who’s to say that Potbelly is like that. There are chains that are pretty good. It’s unfair to judge until I see what it’s like — and the sandwiches really do sound good.
WICHITA — The 10 best retailers for service, according to a survey of shoppers from the National Retail Federation, are:
Amazon.com, Coldwater Creek, HSN, JCPenney, Kohl’s Department Stores, Lands’ End, LL Bean, Nordstrom, Overstock.com, QVC and Zappos.
Funny, they didn’t post a list for the 10 worst.
I love lists and rankings — I guess everybody does — but they do have their problems. Today, the Milken Institute in California came out with a ranking that put Wichita the 15th best performing city in America, up from 45th in 2008. That’s out of the 200 largest in America. Pretty impressive.
But a quick look confirmed my suspicions: the list relies mostly on job growth figures from last year. Wichita always looks great at the end of the cycle because we go down later than most other cities. Oh well.
Sandwich chain Potbelly is prospecting for franchisees in Wichita. The chain has 216 company owned restaurants in the eastern part of the country and is looking for a cheap way to move west.
The chain’s plan is generally for one owner per store, and hasn’t said how many it wants to put here. Its gimmick is that its a quirky, authentic neighborhood sandwich place complete with potbelly stoves and live music reminiscent of the original Potbelly antique store in Chicago that started selling sandwiches to boost traffic. For more info, go to www.potbelly.com.
WICHITA — Corporate profits lead to corporate jets, and the good news from a survey released by the National Association of Business Economists is that more companies are reporting growing profits than shrinking profits for the first time in more than a year.
The bad news is that it will take perhaps 18 to 24 months for that to start showing up in the aircraft makers’ order books.
Keith Lawing, head of the Workforce Alliance for South Central Kansas, says that he didn’t spend all of his federal stimulus summer jobs money last summer so he’ll have a good bit of money left for another jobs program next summer. I don’t know exact numbers.
He had meant to spend $2 million to hire hire 500 young adults to do various jobs, but he said many who applied didn’t meet the income requirements or simply didn’t follow through on the applications.
One of the most interesting bits from a wind energy conference I went to last week came from a workshop on how local manufacturers could get into the wind makers supply chain. Some of our aircraft suppliers would match up pretty well in some ways — makers require a wide mix of parts at low volume with a high degree of precision.
But there’s one big difference: profit margins. Aircraft is traditionally a pretty fat business profitwise, and that profit is spread to some extent over the supply chain. On the other hand, turbine manufacturing is already a world-wide industry. US companies would be competing against established Chinese and European turbine makers and suppliers, tightening up the margins. The upshot, said one of the speakers, is that aircraft suppliers may find it difficult to adapt to the price pressure.
Ran across this this survey from CareerBuilder. High “ick factor,” but pretty funny:
Given the following embarrassing situations, which of your co-workers you would tell the following:
1. Your zipper is undone
a. Same level co-worker – 67 percent
b. Lower level co-worker – 62 percent
c. Higher level co-worker – 50 percent
2. You have something in your nose
a. Same level co-worker – 51 percent
b. Lower level co-worker – 46 percent
c. Higher level co-worker – 33 percent
3. You have food in your teeth or on your face
a. Same level co-worker – 66 percent
b. Lower level co-worker – 60 percent
c. Higher level co-worker – 49 percent
4. Your hair is messy
a. Same level co-worker – 33 percent
b. Lower level co-worker – 30 percent
c. Higher level co-worker – 13 percent
5. You have a stain on your clothes
a. Same level co-worker – 51 percent
b. Lower level co-worker – 47 percent
c. Higher level co-worker – 34 percent
6. You need a breath mint
a. Same level co-worker – 33 percent
b. Lower level co-worker – 29 percent
c. Higher level co-worker – 14 percent
7. You need a shower
a. Same level co-worker – 28 percent
b. Lower level co-worker – 28 percent
c. Higher level co-worker – 11 percent
8. Your apparel is not appropriate for the office
a. Same level co-worker – 32 percent
b. Lower level co-worker – 37 percent
c. Higher level co-worker – 10 percent
WICHITA — I love the Census Bureau because it sometimes comes up with kooky, but revealing stats. This month it revealed that Kansas is in the top 10 states for workers who drive to work alone, with 81 percent riding alone. That means we’re among the least users of carpooling and mass transit in the US, or maybe they’re just less tolerant of neighbors and coworkers. One look at our anemic bus system would confirm that.
The states (or territories) with the highest percentage of more than one commuter per car: as you’d expect, the one’s with big cities. Washington DC, New York, Illinois, California. But, strangely, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho are also on the list.
WICHITA – A study of a new cap-and-trade bill now in Congress aimed at reducing greenhouse gases shows that, if enacted, it would cut Kansas’ economy by $310 million to $532 million a year by 2020. And yet, said study author Margo Thorning, it really wouldn’t do much to curb greenhouse gases worldwide because China and India have done nothing. Her take is that the U.S. needs to focus on getting agreements with emerging economies, more R&D to lower the price of alternative energy and carbon capture technologies, and changes to the tax code to encourage producers to invest in greener technologies.
The study is by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council of Capital Formation.
Other findings:
By 2015, gasoline prices would rise 6-9 percent and natural gas by 16 to 25 percent. As a result, Kansans’ disposable income would fall $130 to $261 per year.
By 2020, gas prices would rise to 19-24 percent and natural gas by 64 to 77 percent. Kansans’ disposable income would fall $851 to $1,397 a year.
By 2030, Kansas would have lost between 21,417 and 29,168 jobs because of the higher energy costs.