How has Wichita fared since the start of the pandemic compared to other metropolitan areas?
(These examples are taken from my interactive visualization which holds data on all metropolitan areas in the nation. See Metro area employment and unemployment. It is updated through December 2021.)
The nearby chart shows Wichita along with some nearby metropolitan areas. It displays three variables:
- The change in employment since the first date shown, which is February 2020.
- The change in labor force since the first date shown.
- The unemployment rate.
In job creation, Wichita has performed at a low level compared to the other areas shown. For the labor force, Wichita is also at a low level. For the unemployment rate, Wichita has not done as well.
This poor showing by Wichita hasn’t always been the case. I also present the same chart starting at the same time but ending with June 2021. Wichita, comparatively, does much better.
New to this visualization is Chart 7. This shows the average monthly change in employment for a selected time frame. It presents the value as the difference from the value for all metropolitan areas, and it shows the rank among all metros, not just the ones that are displayed. In this example from the visualization, I present data for the Wichita metropolitan area and some others. Some are nearby metros, and some, like Pittsburgh, Greenville, and Chattanooga, are metros that Wichita leaders have visited in learning expeditions.
As always, you may use the interactive visualization to create your own charts and tables. The link is above.