Kansas says it’s better prepared for aviation layoffs

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January 17, 2020 - 5:18 PM

Grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington. WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Kansas Labor Secretary Delia Garcia said Thursday that the state is better prepared to respond to layoffs stemming from the grounding of the troubled Boeing 737 Max than it was during the Great Recession, when it had to borrow money to prop up its unemployment insurance trust fund.

That fund now has about $1 billion in it — money that could be tapped now for things such as its shared work program that helps pay worker salaries to keep them on the job. The state is working closely with Spirit and other Kansas companies in the supply chain that supply parts and labor for the 737 Max, she said.

“We took a hit,” Garcia said of the Great Recession. “We’ve been through this before and we are resilient and we got out of it … Right now we are talking one industry, and then it was much larger. I think we are more prepared than we were then.”

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