Spate of Major Employer News Mostly Good

This week has seen big news from several of the Kansas City areas top employers, and most of it was good news. We'll start with the bad news and we will work our way up.
Sprint Nextel Corp., the region's largest private employer, is considering job cuts according to the Wall Street Journal. Sprint has not officially commented on the cuts, so it uncertain how many of the region's 13,000 Sprint employees might be affected. On the positive side of the Sprint story, The Wall Street Journal also speculates that the executive headquarters in Reston, VA. might move back to the Sprint Campus in Overland Park. Such a move would not likely result in a lot of new jobs however.
Certainly job cutbacks are never welcome news, but they are necessary as Sprint tries to remain a player in a very competitive industry. Regaining a fortune 500 Headquarters would be a boost to the local economy's psyche. This and a leaner, more competitive Sprint could translate into better economic news for the region in the future.
Elsewhere, the future continues to look bright for the region's 2 auto manufacturers. The Ford plant in Claycomo is preparing to produce the redesigned F-150 pickup truck. This is certainly a plus for the local plant since the F-150 has been the top selling US vehicle for the past 26 years.
Across the state line at the General Motors plant in Fairfax, demand for the locally manufactured Chevy Malibu will translate in to 300 new jobs.
This good news in manufacturing is worth emphasizing. While manufacturing jobs have been in a steady decline nationally, Kansas City has held it's own in manufacturing employment. In fact MARC's economic forecast calls for thousands of new manufacturing jobs to be created locally in the next 2 years. The fact that Kansas City's strong manufacturing heritage persists despite national decline says a lot about the region's productive workforce and should be a source of pride for the local economy.