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Kansas Unemployment Rate Drops In December To 3.4 Percent

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The state’s unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent in December, according to the latest figures from the Kansas Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s down slightly from November and down from 4.3 percent in December 2016.

“Employers continue to demand valuable Kansas labor as jobs, hours worked, and real earnings increased over the year,” state Labor Secretary Lana Gordon said in a statement.

Private sector jobs increased by more than 5,200 in December, the majority of them in the leisure and hospitality industry.

In the Wichita metro area—which includes Butler, Harvey, Kingman, Sedgwick and Sumner counties—the unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, down a full point from December 2016.

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Tom Shine is the director of news and public affairs. Follow him on Twitter @thomaspshine

 
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

 

Tom joined KMUW in 2017 after spending 37 years with The Wichita Eagle where he held a variety of reporting and editing roles. He also is host of The Range, KMUW’s weekly show about where we live and the people who live here. Tom is an adjunct instructor in the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State University.