Kansas shows highest employment loss in US

Kansas has recorded the biggest percentage decline in employment in December 2007 compared to all other states in the United States. A preliminary data recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has revealed that the loss in Kansas amounts to 0.4 percentage point, or 6,200 establishment payroll jobs, ranging from November to December. This is more than South Carolina’s loss of 5,800 payroll spots. This loss has raised the unemployment rate in Kansas up by 0.6 percentage point, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.4 percent. The figure is, however, still better rate than the 5 percent national unemployment rate. Although the estimated unemployment rate of 5.5 percent registered in December 2007 in Missouri was more than the Kansas and national rates, its month-to-month change was not that much.

According to the state-by-state jobs report released by the labor bureau, 65,000 Kansas workers and 169,200 Missouri workers lost their jobs and were looking for new ones in December 2007. If one looks back at December 2006, the same number of Kansas workers had lost employment, but about 21,600 more Missouri workers had been rendered jobless than a year earlier. In both these states, job losses mainly occurred in the construction, trade, transportation, utility, and leisure and hospitality industries. As preliminary data sometimes are adjusted in subsequent months’ reports, labor analysts advise against arriving at any concrete conclusion about trends before two or three months. The labor department, however, has noted that most regional and state unemployment rates have increased in December 2007.