In less than a week, three airplane manufacturers - Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft and Bombardier - have announced layoffs that will trim nearly 7,000 jobs from their Wichita payrolls.
That's an awful lot of people...so many, in fact, that the total is higher than the populations of nearly half the counties in Kansas. I took a look at the 2000 Census figures for Kansas counties, and counted 50 that had populations of less than 6,900.
50...out of 105!
It'd be like firing everyone in Harper or Ellsworth County. Or everyone in Hodgeman and Stanton and Wallace counties combined.
The aircraft layoffs in the last week don't include other companies that have cut their workforce, or the nearly 500 that Hawker Beechcraft cut in a previous round of layoffs in November.
I've heard this plunge compared to the recession that struck just after World War II, as a post-war economy struggled to find its footing. But the Marshall Plan was soon passed to rebuild war-shattered Europe and eastern Asia, and it created an economic boom unparalleled in American history to that point.
I'm hard-pressed to come up with a modern equivalent that will revive America's - or the world's - economic fortunes. That's not to say we're doomed, but it does suggest answers will be harder to come by and slower to perform.
For all those being handed pink slips these days, that's unwelcome news indeed.
It's just sad; I wish things were better for everyone.
ReplyDeleteStan, I agree...I can't fathom all these ppl being laid off at one time in one location. It's sad.
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