Highlights

• According to July 2009 estimates, Kansas businesses lost 48,500 jobs in the past year, a 3.5 percent decrease.
  
  
• The July unemployment rate was 7.7 percent, up from 7.1 percent in June and 4.9 percent last year.
  
  
• Most major industries reported statewide over-the-year losses. These losses were highest in manufacturing, professional and business services, and trade, transportation and utilities.
  
  
• Three industries still reported modest job gains despite overall losses:
  
  
• Government added 3,300 jobs over the year, a 1.4 percent increase. Gains in this industry were primarily in local government.



• The education and health services sector added 1,800 jobs over the year, a 1.0 percent increase. The majority of gains in this industry were in health care services.



• The mining and logging industry added 200 jobs over the year, a 2.0 percent increase. Jobs in this area are primarily in natural gas and oil extraction.



• There were 28,359 initial claims for unemployment benefits in July 2009, up from 25,767 initial claims for last month and up from 10,863 in July 2008.
  
  
• There were 208,715 continued claims for unemployment benefits in July 2009, down from 242,395 continued claims last month and up from 76,072 in July 2008.
  
  
• There were 5,057 initial claims and 72,772 continued claims for Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits in July 2009, up from 4,213 initial claims and 60,654 continued claims for EUC benefits in June 2009. These claims are in addition to the monthly initial and continued claims numbers.
  
  
• The August 2009 Labor Report will be released September 18, 2009.
  

Labor Report Data Bank

Overview        PDF       Excel

Unemployment in Kansas and MSAs    PDF       Excel      Historical Data

Nonfarm Jobs in Kansas and MSAs    PDF       Excel      Historical Data

County Unemployment Map    HTML

County Unemployment Rates    PDF       Excel

Quotes

Labor Economist Tyler Tenbrink
"The amount of over-the-year job losses dropped from 54,800 jobs in June to 48,500 jobs in July. Although this is still a significant loss, it indicates that the rate of job loss did slow from last month. It remains to be seen if July will begin a new trend of slowing job loss or if we will return to the more rapid pace of job loss we were experiencing in the months prior to July."

This is Tyler Tenbrink, with the Kansas Department of Labor.

Audio clip for radio stations by Annie Flachsbarth
WMA
MP3