A severe downturn in the aviation industry has led to the loss of 30,000 jobs in Wichita as the impact from mass layoffs at companies such as Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft and Bombardier Learjet has rippled through small suppliers and the economy, according to Mayor Carl Brewer.

Unemployment in this aviation-dependent city of 364,000 has hit 9.7% as business jet and general aviation manufacturers have throttled back on production after mass cancellations of existing orders and a dramatic reduction in new orders. "That type of unemployment hasn't been seen here in decades," Brewer said in an interview Wednesday in his City Hall office.

It is a dramatic reversal of fortune for Kansas's largest city, which prospered as deliveries of business jets nearly doubled between 2004 and 2008. Engineering students at Wichita State University were virtually guaranteed well-paying jobs when they graduated. "In the spring of 2008 we needed about 10,000 workers," recalls Brewer.

But with Cessna having laid off about half of its workforce this year and Hawker and Learjet having cut legions of jobs, the city is suddenly full of job seekers. A center established to assist laid off workers with job training and social services is attracting 300-500 people a day during the two days per week that is it open. Brewer, a Democrat who began his post-military career as a sheet metal mechanic at Cessna, believes the worst of the layoffs are over and that the industry will rebound sharply by 2011. But he predicts job losses will continue in smaller numbers. "I just want it to stabilize," he says.

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Citation XLS image credit: Cessna