NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Creighton University economist Ernie Goss notes that the manufacturing sector is showing some weakness in this part of the country.
"We've lost manufacturing jobs for 2024," Goss said. "The U.S. economy has lost more than between 33 and 40,000 manufacturing jobs just in 2024. So manufacturing, we may not call it a recession, but it sure feels like a recession for certain portions of the manufacturing sector."
The Sunflower State is seeing its own struggles, specifically.
"In Kansas, you're talking about aircraft manufacturing and parts manufacturing, which is a big, big important industry for the state of Kansas," Goss said. "That's undergoing some significant changes. I look no further than Boeing aircraft to see what's going on there and the connections to the Kansas economy. That's certainly being felt by a lot across the region, but particularly in Kansas."
The supply managers and bankers that Goss surveys regularly are pretty negative about the coming months.
"There's a lot of pessimism out there in this part of the country," Goss said. "I think it's also in other parts of the nation, but particularly here because of the dependence on agriculture, the dependence on manufacturing, and now we've got this strike going on. Now, we'll have to wait and see."
Goss said the labor actions across the country, from Boeing in the northwest to the dockworkers in the Gulf and Atlantic, will have a drag on the economy in the fourth quarter.