Regional Monthly Workforce Indicators

Kansas City employers added 6,800 jobs in September, a bounce back from the decline in August.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' employment numbers for September show a return to employment growth as the region added 6,800 jobs after declining by 10,500 in August. Total employment remains 3700 jobs below the year’s high point in July. At 1,144,600, the region’s total number of non-farm wage and salary jobs now stands 38,100 above its pre-recession peak.

This graph shows the current number of jobs in the Kansas City metro as determined by the monthly Current Employment Statistics survey. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the influences of predictable seasonal patterns to reveal the underlying trend in how employment and unemployment change from month to month.

Employment — Seasonally adjusted

This graph shows the current number of jobs in the Kansas City metro as determined by the monthly Current Employment Statistics survey. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the influences of predictable seasonal patterns to reveal the underlying trend in how employment and unemployment change from month to month.

In September, Kansas City rose to the sixth spot among benchmark metros in employment growth rate over the past 12 months.

Employment growth among Greater Kansas City’s benchmark metros breaks into three tiers. In the top tier are cities where the number of jobs increased over by 3 percent or more in the last 12 months. This tier includes Nashville, Charlotte, Austin, and Raleigh. The second tier includes cities with growth of between 2-3% over the past year. This tier includes Portland (2.4%), Kansas City (2.3%), Indianapolis (2.3%), and Cincinnati (2.2%). The third tier of metros includes those where job growth was below 2%. These include Minneapolis (1.5%), Denver (0.3%), and Columbus (0%).
 

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged at 2.8% in September. The rate has remained steady since a slight uptick in May. This is still below historical averages and continues to suggest a very strong labor market.

The Kansas City metropolitan area’s unemployment rate remained steady at 2.8% in September. Sub-3% unemployment rates still signify a very strong labor market. In peer metros only Nashville’s unemployment rate was lower at 2.6%. The Kansas City region’s rate is a full percentage point below the national unemployment rate of 3.8% in September.

Unemployment rate — Seasonally adjusted

Nearly all industries have grown over the past year, except for Transportation and Utilities and Information. Overall, the job growth figures show an economy where demand has shifted from goods to services. This is reflected in the 12-month job growth rates of Leisure and Hospitality Services (4,900 jobs), Health Services and Private Education (4,100 jobs), Professional and Business Services (4,100 jobs), and Financial Services (3,200 jobs).

Among the goods-producing sectors, Construction and Mining continues to grow strongly (1,700 jobs), largely because of robust growth in industrial space development. Local Government (2,800 jobs) shows strong growth as well.

Note: Professional and Business Services is the sum of Professional/Technical Services, Management of Companies and Administrative Support and Waste Management.

Average hourly earnings increased 10 cents in September relative to August, to $31.37. This follows a 27-cent decline in the previous month.

Average private hourly earnings rebounded to $31.37 in September, up 10 cents from the prior month but still down 17 cents from the July peak. Wages are up $1.73 from September 2022. Compared to a year ago, wages overall grew by 5.5 percent. 

While good news, the region’s workers still have a long way to go to achieve the kinds of wage increases their counterparts in other benchmark metros have experienced since the COVID-19 recession. Average wages for Kansas City area workers are only 8.6% higher now than in January 2020. The region is next to last in terms of wage growth among peer metros. Average workers in Columbus (up 23.34%), Portland (up 23%), and Nashville (up 18.8%) have received the highest wage increases over that time. As a result, when looking at the entire post-COVID-19 recession recovery period, the region’s wage increases rank 10th out of the 11 benchmark metros, only beating out Indianapolis (up 6.1%).

Each month, we provide data on jobs that have been most in demand in a key regional occupational sector based on employer job postings.

September’s data is consistent with an economy whose growth is slowing.  Year-over-year gains in employment have come down since the beginning of the year and both employment and wages are currently below their July peaks.  Unemployment, though has remained remarkably low and shows little sign of rapidly increasing, producing some confidence that a recession may yet be avoided as we head into 2024.

Last updated Nov. 17, 2023.