Wyandotte County, KCK unemployment rates above 10 percent again

Posted by Nick Sloan on January 22, 2010 - 2:10pm
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After dipping back down into single figures in November, the unemployment rate in both Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., has increased to over 10 percent.

In Wyandotte County overall, unemployment rate jumped from 8.7 percent in November to 10.3 percent in December 2009. In 2008, the number was 8.8 percent.

In KCK, the jump in unemployment was similar.

The December 2009 figure came in at 10.7 percent, up from 9.0 percent last month. At this point last year, the number was 9.1 percent. Both numbers are the highest in the State of Kansas. The overall unemployment rate in the state is 6.3 percent.

"We continue to experience a weak labor market in Kansas as evidenced by significant over-the-year job losses," said Tyler Tenbrink, with the Kansas Department of Labor "Industries where we expect to see job losses this time of year experienced more significant losses than are typical, and industries where we normally see job gains experienced smaller gains than normal."

Across the state, 60,000 jobs were lost in 2009.

Posted by Michaelanne Duncan on January 22, 2010 - 5:19pm
Are these statistics just based on the number of people on unemployment? I was just wondering if that is how they track it because if so, I would hate to see what the real number would be.
Posted by Nick Sloan on January 22, 2010 - 6:04pm
These are from the State of Kansas' Labor Department, so they are probably a little higher if unemployment benefits have been exhausted.
Posted by Richard Peel on January 23, 2010 - 11:15am
I'm just wondering what would happen to these numbers if the UG made e-verify mandatory ?
Posted by K Hontz on April 26, 2010 - 7:42pm
What about the people who are trying to apply for disability benefits? I'm sure there are not thousands of them, but maybe there are. At any rate if you apply for any disability benefit you are not allowed to work at all. Nor can you draw unemployment benefits. You are not allowed to have any income source. Are these people counted in any way. Six months without income is pretty daunting.