The city of Wichita is getting ready to cut back on 110 jobs, as well as making other cuts, in order to set the city to right in terms of its budget. On the bright side the city has managed to cut these 110 positions without actually putting anyone out of a job. The city is hoping to have all 110 ten positions cut immediately, thanks to a policy of attrition. The city will be letting the majority of its vacant positions hang open in order to make up for holes in the budget.

It is a very good thing that the city is not actually cutting back on jobs, as that would lead to a mass layoff action. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” If this had been a mass layoff action then there would have been the possibility of ripple layoffs that would have occurred. A mass layoff action can have a depressing effect on the local economy and as workers have less to spend other businesses have less in the way of income, businesses get less income and waves of secondary layoffs occur. By using attrition the city ensures that while there is not growth in income, there is also no loss of income in the area as well.

All of this is, of course, theoretical because it is under the terms of the proposed budget. The budget for the city for 2013 by 2013 by the City Manager, Mr. Robert Layton. The budget will, in order to make ends meet, by cutting back on certain other services, such as reduced hours for the library branches in the city. All of this is designed to help the city to shore up a $5.4 million hole, if nothing was done, though the same may not be possible next year as the projected deficit is going to be more than $1 million larger than 2013’s budget. So what really may be happening here is a defer of layoffs, instead of a prevention of them, but most workers would probably agree that a year on the payrolls now is a welcome thing, as the city may find other ways to recover before the layoffs begin.

The city is going to make a final vote by the city council on this budget on the 17^th of July, and if that vote goes well then the city will officially adopt the budget on the 14^th of August. So in this case only time will tell if the workers are going to get a stay of layoffs or if some political negotiations will talk the city into cutting back on jobs.