How jobless rates fare from December to January remains to be seen, but jobless rates didn’t move much between October and November.
The Kansas Department of Labor says Emporia’s jobless rate dropped slightly, from 3.5 to 3.4 percent. Lyon County went from 3.5 to 3.3 percent.
This does not reflect the recent large-scale closure announcements from Holiday Resort and Tyson Foods because those decisions were publicized earlier this month. Holiday’s announcement displaced over 100 workers, while the Tyson announcement displaced over 800.
Areawide, there was little movement in either direction. Chase, Greenwood, Morris, Osage and Wabaunsee counties all had modest declines, while Coffey County had a slight increase. Morris and Wabaunsee counties have the lowest unemployment areawide at 3 percent. Coffey County has the area high at 3.9 percent.
Statewide, the jobless rate climbed from 3.4 percent to 3.5 percent. It had been 2.6 percent a year ago.
