Boeing sale to take toll on economy
Wichita ? The sale of Boeing Co.’s commercial aircraft plant in Wichita to a Canadian investment firm will take an economic toll on the region, at least in the short term, an economist says.
Janet Harrah, director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University, that the sale of Boeing’s operations in Wichita to Onex Corp. would result in a 1 percent deduction in the region’s personal income.
Harrah based her estimate on 1,000 job losses, wage cuts of 10 percent throughout the company and no hiring of new workers for at least a year. It also included effects on other businesses.
Considering that the economy only grows a few percentage points each year, Harrah said, the sale would slow the region’s economic growth.
“The silver lining is that the rest of the economy is starting to pick back up,” Harrah said.
Wichita – home to aircraft manufacturing plants for Boeing, Cessna Aircraft, Raytheon Aircraft and Bombardier Aerospace, along with more than 60 aviation subcontractors – suffered when the aviation economy took a downturn that was hastened by the Sept. 11 terror attacks. But that economy had been recovering in the last year, with some companies even recalling laid-off workers.