Wichita economic recovery slowed in 2013

The Wichita area’s achingly slow recovery got even slower last year.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Wichita metro area’s gross domestic product grew just 1.7 percent in 2013, to $31.53 billion.

After subtracting for inflation, Wichita metro GDP was $29.2 billion, just 0.7 percent more than the year before. That ranks the region 238th out of the country’s 381 metro areas.

Gross domestic product measures the value of all locally produced goods and services. The Wichita area includes Sedgwick, Butler, Harvey and Sumner counties.

It’s been a very slow climb out of the recession for the country, and Wichita has lagged even that pace.

Since the area hit bottom in 2009, the local GDP has grown about 10 percent and is on the verge of surpassing the old peak year set in 2007. That could happen this year, which would mean a seven-year recovery.

The private sector grew slightly faster than the overall rate, while the smaller government sector shrank by 1.2 percent.

Local economists pointed to another rough year for Wichita’s aircraft sector, with more layoffs and restructurings, as contributing to the slowdown.

Jet deliveries for Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft and Bombardier’s Learjet plant were down in 2013 from 2012. Hawker Beechcraft underwent bankruptcy and was bought by Cessna parent Textron – a deal announced at the end of 2013. Spirit AeroSystems recorded some losses and laid off some employees, while adding some others. And Boeing continued to draw down its Wichita operations and workforce through the year.

Jeremy Hill, director of the center for economic development and business research at Wichita State University, said the GDP is even weaker than his group had forecast.

“We didn’t have high expectation to start with, but it’s hard to capture what was going on in aerospace, and their contribution is so important,” Hill said.

Economics and Friends University professor Malcolm Harris said, fortunately or unfortunately, Wichita’s economy is diversifying as it grows even as the general aviation industry remains in a slump.

The community’s interest in maintaining that hard-won diversification will be tested in years to come, if general aviation snaps back.

“We typically want to diversify the economy when aircraft is down and crow about aircraft when it’s up,” Harris said. “We’re not terribly consistent in how we view the world.”

This story was originally published September 16, 2014 at 9:41 AM with the headline "Wichita economic recovery slowed in 2013."