Sedgwick County unemployment rate remains one of the highest in Kansas, but drops off
Sedgwick County’s unemployment rate remained one of the highest in Kansas in August, but no longer topped the list across the state, according to the Kansas labor market report released Friday.
The unemployment rate in Kansas remained at 3.8% in August, the same as July. Last August, the state had an unemployment rate of 6.2%, showing some economic recovery over the last year.
“August estimates indicate little change in the labor force since July, resulting in no change to the unemployment rate at 3.8 percent,” Labor Secretary Amber Shultz said in a statement. “The private sector added jobs for the third consecutive month. Most of the gains in August were due to continued economic recovery in manufacturing and leisure and hospitality.”
In Sedgwick County, the unemployment rate of 5.5% in August remained one of the highest in the state, which has been typical throughout the pandemic. While it has often been the single highest rate of unemployment in Kansas, two counties had higher rates in August: Geary County at 5.8% and Neosho County at 5.7%.
The state’s August unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted, while the county specific rates are not.
Elsewhere in August in south central Kansas, counties had unemployment rates of:
- 5% in Sumner County
- 4.5% in Reno County
- 4.4% in Cowley County
- 4.3% in Butler County
- 3.8% in Harvey County
- 3.8% in Kingman County
- 3.5% in Harper County
Nationally, the August unemployment rate stood at 5.2%, declining just 0.2 percentage points from the prior month. Kansas is one of 35 states whose unemployment rate remained stable last month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In total, 22 states had unemployment rates lower than the U.S. figure of 5.2%.
Across Kansas, the private sector added 2,900 jobs in August, up from July. However, government jobs in the state decreased by 4,200, according to the Kansas Department of Labor’s monthly labor market report.
“Private sector employers in Kansas added 2,900 jobs in August,” Labor Economist Emilie Doerksen said in a statement. “With this additional growth, current estimates are only 3.1 percent below pre-pandemic levels. For comparison, U.S. job estimates for August are 3.5 percent lower than February 2020 estimates.”
Federal benefits expired
Federal, pandemic unemployment benefits expired Sept. 4 in Kansas, leaving out-of-work Kansans with the regular state unemployment insurance if they quality. Additional payments, extended weeks of claims and expanded pools of eligible workers will become benefits of the past after Congress did not renew the programs created by federal COVID-19 relief bills.
Likely as a result, initial unemployment claims dropped off for the week of Sept. 11, with 1,170 new claims, Kansas labor department data shows. There were 3,014 initial claims in Kansas the week of Sept. 4.
The Kansas Department of Labor also reported the average number of unique calls per day to its infamously understaffed call center dropped off from 12,780 one week to 9,712 the next. The call center received more than 24,000 calls per day in late July and many more in prior months.
Despite hiring hundreds of contract workers to handle such a high volume of calls in the pandemic, the labor department did not significantly improve its ability to answer those calls from unemployed Kansans, according to a Legislative audit.
