Kansas Labor Market Report-December 2018

Preliminary estimates reported by the Kansas Department of Labor (KDOL) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.3 percent in December. This was up from 3.2 percent in November and down from 3.5 percent in December 2017.

Seasonally adjusted job estimates indicate total Kansas nonfarm jobs increased by 1,100 from November. Private sector jobs, a subset of total nonfarm jobs, increased by 900 from the previous month.

“Kansas posted significant job growth over the last 12 months with 17,200 additional private sector jobs,” said Labor Economist, Emilie Doerksen. “Employers in the state have demonstrated a growing demand for labor as evidenced by upward trends in average weekly hours worked and real hourly earnings in the last 12 months.”

Since December 2017, Kansas gained 20,100 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs and 17,200 private sector jobs.

December 2018 estimates are not impacted by the partial federal government shutdown. The reference period for nonfarm job estimates is the pay period that includes the 12th of the month and the reference period for the unemployment rate is the calendar week containing the 12th (December 9-15, 2018). Both occurred prior to the partial shutdown which began on December 22, 2018. More information is available on the BLS website.