It's huge news here because in our metropolitan area of 300,000 people (yes, that is the largest city in Kansas, believe it or not), Boeing employs over 12,000 of those people -- making it by far the largest employer.
On top of that, several hundred local small business sub-contract to Boeing, making it affect many more businesses and people.
Which, in turn, trickle down to place like the bank where I work. Boeing's place in Wichita has the ability to sway the entire economy here. If a sale would end up laying off workers, than means more people leave town, more people are unable to pay off their loans through banks like ours, and the home building market dies.
It is horrible that one company can have such a huge impact on one city.
At least it has taken BTK out of the headlines of the daily paper for awhile.....
Farmgirl
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Yeah, that could potentially have a huge impact on the economy of south central Kansas, especially with the relatively recent loss of the Crayola plant in Winfield, and...hm...does Rubbermaid still have its Winfield plant going, or has that closed down as well?
What percentage of that 12,000 people are employed in the commercial end of Boeing's operations, and what percentage are employed in the military end, do you know? According to the article Boeing isn't interested in selling the military portion of its business in Wichita.
Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :
possibly thanks to that tanker contract everyone was so upset about?
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Yeah, I'm sure that the loss of the tanker deal was the straw that broke the camel's back on this one.
Farmgirl
edit: Noemon, I can't find on Boeing's Employment Site how many are commercial and how many are military. I know there are far more commercial side workers here.