KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City metro area’s unemployment rate is unchanged from earlier this summer, but is still well below the national average according to federal statistics released on Wednesday.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the not-seasonably adjusted unemployment rate in July stood at 7.5 percent, well below the July national unemployment rate of 8.6 percent.
The unemployment report paints a better employment picture for the Kansas side of the metro than the Missouri side, with the Missouri side losing 4,500 jobs from 2011 and the Kansas side gaining 7,700 jobs in the last year.
The BLS report shows that on a not-seasonally-adjusted basis, three of the ten industry supersectors in the Kansas City metropolitan area added over 1,000 jobs from July 2011 to July 2012. Leisure and hospitality experienced the largest growth in employment, gaining 5,900 jobs, followed by professional and business services (5,800). Locally, the rates of job growth in these sectors outpaced their respective national rates.
Leisure and hospitality employment grew 6.0 percent in the Kansas City metropolitan area, three times the 2.0-percent rate for the nation; locally, professional and business services employment expanded 3.8 percent compared to the national rate of 3.4 percent.
Manufacturing added 1,800 jobs over the year. The 2.5-percent growth rate for manufacturing locally outpaced the 1.9 percent for the nation.
Four industry supersectors in the Kansas City metropolitan area lost over 1,000 jobs from July 2011 to July 2012. Mining, logging, and construction registered the largest decrease in employment, shedding 5,000 jobs over the year. Government (-1,700), information (-1,500), and trade, transportation, and utilities (-1,100) also experienced job losses from their July 2011 levels.
