The local and state economies have seemed more well-positioned than most to ride out the financial crisis. But the layoff announcement at Hawker Beechcraft is another worrisome indicator of how connected Wichita’s economy is to Wall Street and the world after all. The cuts will affect 5 percent of the work force at Hawker Beechcraft, despite its record $7 billion order backlog. The ripples from the layoffs, on top of the impact of the recent Machinists union strikes at Boeing and Hawker Beechcraft, are sure to be felt throughout the Wichita area. For its part, the Commerce Department said today that factory orders dropped by 2.5 percent from August to September, far more than the 0.8 percent decline expected. At least October’s tax collections in Kansas were on track with expectations.
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22 Comments
All those morons who were telling our reps. to do nothing and obstruct a rescue plan, will find out just how dependent aircraft sales are on on available credit!
Bitch at the unions Phantom.
Christmas is going to suck this year for many in Wichita and the surrounding area. Not only are the layoffs at H-B going to hit hard, but the reduced hours at Spirit in addition to the Boeing strike will leave not only those workers, but the employees of smaller companies in the area that provide parts for planes.
Wichita and Kansas have managed to stay afloat when other areas of the country have seen employment crater. I guess it just proves that it will hit us, too, just later than many.
Didn’t Cessna announce a layoff not long ago?
“…factory orders dropped by 2.5 percent from August to September, far more than the 0.8 percent decline expected.”
Here we go again. Have the predictors ever got anything right?
“Unemployment numbers drop, but not as far as expected.”
“Earnings are higher, but not as high as predicted”
“Didn’t Cessna announce a layoff not long ago?”
NO.
Hey Phantom,
The bailout passed. I still see no progress.
You central planned economy folks are all the same.
It would be much worse, had it not passed.
Strange, very strange. We were recently assured by Wichita EAGLE business reporter and cub newspaper blogger opinion maker, Bill Wilson, on the EAGLE’s “Business Casual Blog,” that Wichita is shielded from the growing ravaging effects of the national recession. Wilson’s “wondrous insight” gave credit to some kind of safety umbrella from Wichita’s airplane manufacturing industry.
Well, I don’t know what Wilson’s excuse is now that Hawker-Beechcraft has announced FIVE PERCENT CUTS in employment, much of which will be in Wichita.
This will have a trickle down effect to H-B’s parts subcontractors.
Now we can only hope the other local airplane manufacturers don’t face similar cutbacks.
;-(
Phantom
Posted November 4, 2008 at 3:16 pm | Permalink
It would be much worse, had it not passed.
_______________________________________________
Sounds like an opinion to me.
Got any proof of this.
I’ve got the great depression and history on my side.
littlejohn
Posted November 4, 2008 at 1:37 pm | Permalink
“Didn’t Cessna announce a layoff not long ago?”
NO.
*****
Actually, Predestined had a pre-cognition. Cessna announced this afternoon they are laying off workers due to cancelled orders.
http://www.kansas.com/news/updates/story/585217.html
Actually, precognition is one word, no hyphen needed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precognition
Somewhere between Predestined’s comments and my comment at 4:10, I became aware of the new situation . Hence my 4:10 comment. I will leave it at that
I said at the outset of the financial crisis Wichita would be impacted. Whenever Kansans contact their repub. representative and tell him how to vote, you can safely bet it is against their self interest.
Very strong contrarian indicator.
You can rest assured the big aircraft requiring hundreds of millions for the deals will be impacted too, and it’ll impact Joe the aircraft worker.
Precognition? I’m weird, but not that weird, Steven. :)
LJ, I heard a rumor a couple of weeks ago. I thought it had been announced before today. Obviously I was wrong about the announcement.
I just heard about the Cessna problems on the 5 PM local news. It seems to be a story in process.
Unions can put part of the blame on themselves for any reduction or slowdown. Strikes help no one. The evil corporations must make a profit so we all have jobs.
Let’s be fair here. Both Hawker Beechcraft and Boeing unions went on strike before the financial meltdown. How many of us really saw that coming?
And, george, Cessna didn’t strike, so part of the blame cannot be because of a strike.
There is no story here.
There are a couple of stories TRYING to be sold here.
First, you need to know that Beech ALWAYS lays off people before the holidays so they don’t have to pay the holiday pay. It’s just a nasty little tradition there. It’s been that way for more than 30 years. A friend of mine used to get it every year.
But you didn’t know that til I told you.
Secondly? The company put on a BUNCH of new people leading up to the recent strike on the hope that they could use the new workers to break a strike if it happened.
Now that you know the truth?
There are two stories the company is trying to create here.
The strike was bad for the workers.
Ya better vote for Republicans or you will lose your job.
Neither of these is necessarily true unless the company decides to make them true.
Nothing to believe here.
The normal effect of a strike upon return is an increase in hours, not a decrease in workers. It’s not the unions.
The lines at the lords dinner, salvation army, all the food wharehouses and charities in Wichita will have looooong lines this year. Most people thought their jobs were safe. Now they know there is no such thing as job security!