March employment better in Kansas, worse in Missouri

Employment in March went up in Kansas and down in Missouri, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said today.

Kansas had an estimated over-the-month employment increase — from February to March — of 0.2 percent, while Missouri had a 0.4 percent decrease.

At a 4.1 percent jobless rate in the state, Kansas fared significantly better than the national unemployment rate of 5.1 percent and the Missouri rate of 5.7 percent, the bureau said.

Non-seasonally adjusted, Kansas had about 64,700 unemployed job hunters looking for work in March; Missouri had an estimated 182,500.

In Kansas, there were 1,386,700 workers on non-farm establishment payrolls in March. In Missouri, the payroll estimate stood at 2,790,700 workers.

| Diane Stafford, stafford@kcstar.com