Business owners, city and county officials, education administrators and policymakers heard some positive news about the local and state economy during the Emporia Regional Economic Outlook Conference held Friday at Flint Hills Technical College.
Jeremy Hill, director of Wichita State’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research and one of the key figures behind the ninth-annual conference, says the state is “just now getting our legs back underneath us” after economic struggles in 2016 and 2017.
The conference featured numerous data sets, including a regional labor market update, a state outlook and a real estate outlook. This year’s presentations also included the local economic update from ESU assistant professor of economics Bekah Selby. Her data showed employment increasing since 2013, with the manufacturing sector employing the most people locally with over 3,000 workers and having the largest overall payroll at over $1.4 million. Health care is second in both categories, followed by retail trade. Real income, which accounts for inflation, is flat, but there is an increase in nominal income that goes against the grain for a lot of Kansas counties. Emporia’s population has also increased since 2014 but is down from the 2010 census.
Meanwhile, ESU associate professor Mark Fusaro had the latest from the Emporia State Economic Index. Kansas remains in the middle of a seven-stat regional pack when it comes to economic growth, with a solid year-to-year number compared to a slight dip from August to September. Fusaro also presented information about a possible recession, which may be offset by unemployment below a 4.4-percent benchmark and agriculture production numbers are largely holding steady or trending up.
