Slow job growth continues in the Kansas City area

Employers in the Kansas City area posted a net gain of 10,300 jobs from November 2013 to November 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday.

That was a year-over-year gain of 1 percent, a slower rate than the national average of 2 percent, according to the bureau’s nonseasonally adjusted estimates.

The November unemployment rate for the Kansas City area was estimated at 5 percent, a 0.2 percentage point uptick from October’s 4.8 percent. That compared with a national jobless rate, also nonseasonally adjusted, of 5.5 percent in November.

Economists note that a small increase in the unemployment rate sometimes indicates an improving economy as more job hunters re-enter the market when it appears that more jobs are available.

A year ago, the area jobless rate was 5.5 percent. The new estimates indicated there were 52,500 active job hunters in the Kansas City area last month, about 4,000 fewer than a year earlier.

The monthly report on area job markets showed healthy numbers for the cities near Kansas City that are major college towns. Joblessness was 3.7 percent in Manhattan and 3.5 percent in Lawrence and Columbia.

According to the labor bureau, there were 1,027,800 payroll jobs in nonfarm establishments in the Kansas City area last month. The bureau said 55 percent of those jobs were on the Missouri side of the state line and 45 percent on the Kansas side.

The Missouri side of the area accounted for more than three-fourths of the area’s job growth from November 2013 to November 2014. Net job gains on the Missouri side were 8,400, compared with 1,900 on the Kansas side.

This story was originally published December 30, 2014 at 10:42 AM with the headline "Slow job growth continues in the Kansas City area."