Industries are concentrated in Douglas, Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee, and Wyandotte counties. The estimated value of shipments for all state manufacturing totaled $49 billion in 1997.
Kansas is a world leader in aviation, claiming a large share of both US and world production and sales of commercial aircraft. Wichita is the home of Boeing, Cessna, Learjet, and Raytheon, which combined manufactured approximately 70% of the world's general aviation aircraft and $3.47 billion in sales. The aviation sector employees 19% of the manufacturing sector workforce.
Other major businesses in Kansas include, in order of full-time employee numbers: Sprint, IBP, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., GM, Western Resources, Southwestern Bell, Via Christi Medical Services, and Allied Signal. Many of the major companies in Kansas pack meat.
Earnings of persons employed in Kansas increased from $44.5 billion in 1997 to $47.4 billion in 1998, an increase of 6.5%. The largest industries in 1998 were services, 23.2% of earnings; durable goods manufacturing, 12.2%; and state and local government, 12.0%. Of the industries that accounted for at least 5% of earnings in 1998, the slowest growing from 1997 to 1998 was state and local government, which increased 2.0%; the fastest was durable goods manufacturing, which increased 10.8%.