Voice For Liberty

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  • Wichita aerospace manufacturing concentration

    Wichita aerospace manufacturing concentration

    Wichita leaders want to diversify the area economy. Has there been progress?

    In the wake of layoffs at Textron Aviation (875) 1 and Spirit Aerosystems (2,796), 2 Wichita’s leaders shift their attention to the need to diversify the Wichita metropolitan area economy. This has been a recognized need for a long time. 3

    One way to measure the concentration of an industry in a location is by the proportion of employment in that industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides employment by industry for metropolitan areas. I’ve gathered the data for the Wichita MSA for two industries: Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing (NAICS code 3364) and all manufacturing. I’ve gathered this data for the Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area and compare it to total private sector employment. This data is not adjusted for seasonality, as some are available only in that manner. Data is through November 2019.


    As the charts illustrate, there was a large shift in the two industry’s share of employment around the time of the Great Recession. Since then, the ratios have been more stable, with a slow decline until a small reversal of that trend over the last two years.

    The chart of employment ratio changes from the same month one year ago confirms: Manufacturing and aerospace employment has grown faster than total private employment for the last two years or so.

    Another way to measure the concentration of industry is through location quotients. The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides these, most notably for counties as part of the Quarterly of Census and Wages. 4 As described by BLS, “Location quotients are useful for studying the composition of jobs in an area relative to the average, or for finding areas that have high concentrations of jobs in certain occupations. As measured here, a location quotient shows the occupation’s share of an area’s employment relative to the national average.” 5

    Further: “For example, a location quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it does nationally, and a location quotient of 0.5 indicates the area’s share of employment in the occupation is half the national share.”

    This data is available by industry. I’ve gathered data for Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing (NAICS code 3364) for Sedgwick County and present it in a nearby chart.


    First, note that the location quotient is large, averaging around 32 in recent years. This means the concentration of workers in this industry in Sedgwick County is 32 times the concentration nationwide.

    Second, the location quotient fell from 2007 through 2014. Since then, it has been steady.

    Has the Wichita area diversified its economy? Based on these two measures, the answer is yes. That increase in diversity coincided with a large decline in aviation-related employment, with that decline being larger than the decline in all Wichita-area private-sector employment. That was not planned or desired. It was a result of worldwide trends, most notably the Great Recession.

    But since 2014, concentration in aviation-related employment has changed little, meaning no progress in diversification.

    —
    Notes

    1. Textron, Inc. Form 8-K, December 5, 2019. Available at https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/217346/000110465919070378/tm1924597-1_8k.htm. ↩
    2. https://www.kansasworks.com/ada/mn_warn_dsp.cfm?id=2021 ↩
    3. See, for example: Roe, John. Where To From Here? Surviving The Coming Bad Times Will Require A Direction, Wichita Eagle, February 7, 1993. ↩
    4. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. Available at https://www.bls.gov/cew/datatoc.htm. ↩
    5. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Using Location Quotients to Analyze Occupational Data. Available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/highlight_location_quotients.htm. ↩
  • Wichita to consider tax forgiveness outside policy parameters

    Wichita to consider tax forgiveness outside policy parameters

    The Wichita city council will consider a tax giveaway for an economic development project that does not meet its stated policy.

    Tomorrow the Wichita City Council will consider issuing up to $33 million in Industrial Revenue Bonds in relation to a project at the Wichita State University Innovation Campus.

    Despite its name, in the IRB program the city does not purchase bonds or lend money. The city does not guarantee the payment of the bond interest or principle. Instead, the IRB program allows the city to grant tax forgiveness, both property tax and sales tax. 1 City documents explain: “MWCB is also requesting a sales tax exemption on items purchased for the project and a 100% five-year tax exemption on the IRB-financed real property improvements plus a second five-year exemption subject to City Council approval.” 2 (emphasis added)

    How much tax is being forgiven? For property tax, $773,604 annually for up to ten years, again from city documents:

    Based on the latest available mill levy, and assuming that the real property improvements are valued at 80% of the actual capital investment, the estimated value of the property tax abatement for the first full year is approximately $773,604. The value of a 100% real property tax exemption as applicable to the taxing jurisdictions is:

    City $215,767
    State $9,900
    County $193,927
    USD 259 (Wichita Public School District) $354,010

    City documents don’t estimate the amount of sales tax savings, but if all the bond proceeds were spent on taxable items, the savings would be $2,475,000.

    This project fails to meet standards set by the city and county for payback from economic development incentives. According to the city’s economic development pages, “City benefit/cost ration must be at least 1.3 to 1.” 3 This requirement is repeated in the Sedgwick County/City of Wichita Economic Development Policy: “The ratio of public benefits to public costs, each on a present value basis, should not be less than 1.3 to one for both the general and debt service funds for the City of Wichita; for Sedgwick County should not be less than 1.3 overall.” 4

    The benefit-cost ratios supplied for this project don’t meet the city and county standards, again from city documents:

    A benefit/cost analysis was performed by Wichita State University’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research based upon the proposed Letter of Intent, with the following ratio of benefits to costs:

    City of Wichita 1.18 to 1.00
    City General Fund 1.10 to 1.00
    City Debt Service 1.37 to 1.00
    Sedgwick County 1.11 to 1.00
    USD 259 1.34 to 1.00
    State of Kansas 5.08 to 1.00

    While the 1.3 to one threshold is met for the city’s debt service fund, it is not met for the city as a whole. Additionally, it doesn’t meet the 1.3 to one threshold for Sedgwick County. The Sedgwick County/City of Wichita Economic Development Policy specifies mitigating factors that can be used to bypass the 1.3 to one requirement, but city documents do not mention these.

    Pieter Brueghel the Younger. The tax-collector’s office.

    —
    Notes

  • Can Wichita learn from a setback?

    Can Wichita learn from a setback?

    What can Wichita learn from the news of layoffs at Spirit and Textron?

    While the Wichita metropolitan area is facing immediate stress due to layoffs at two large employers, we need to look at the long-term horizon and evaluate whether our economic development strategy needs adjustments.

    Like many areas, Wichita relies on economic development incentives to lure companies, or to persuade them to stay rather than leave for elsewhere. There is much research finding incentives playing a minor part in business decisions. Nathan M. Jensen, for example, found this:

    In my own study of 80 incentive offerings in Texas, published in October in the journal Public Choice, I found that numerous companies applied for incentives after they had already broken ground and, in some cases, after they had completed building. A few even noted in their applications that they weren’t looking at other states for their investments. Yet all of these companies received taxpayer dollars for doing what they would have done anyway.

    This points to the open secret of economic development: Though incentives are rarely effective in changing firms’ investment decisions, they do allow politicians to attend ribbon-cutting ceremonies where they can highlight their own role in attracting a new company (or retaining an old one) and creating jobs. 1

    Timothy J. Bartik found this: “Reviewing 34 estimates from research studies of incentives’ effects, Bartik found that typical incentives only tip 2 to 25 percent of location decisions — that is, the company wouldn’t have located there ‘but for’ the incentive.” 2

    So how can we know if incentives are needed in a particular instance? It’s difficult, as neither party has an incentive to be forthright. If a business executive does not ask for incentives, the firm’s owners are justified in asking why not. And it’s difficult for politicians and bureaucrats to turn down opportunities to bask in the glory of groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies and their improved chances at re-election.

    Incentives increase the cost of government for those who don’t receive them. Yes, cities like Wichita promote a benefit-cost analysis that shows that for each dollar spent or forgone for incentives, the city receives even more. But this happens with all economic activity, even that which is not incentivized. This leads to the important question: Is the incentive necessary? With so much evidence showing incentives are not necessary, Wichita spends a lot on companies that don’t need incentives, with everyone else paying their cost.

    Even before the Spirit announcement, Wichita was looking at a slowly-growing economy. The Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University provides forecasts for the Wichita economy. For 2020, CEDBR wrote in its October forecast, “For 2020, growth is expected to be more modest, as the Wichita economy is projected to add approximately 1,600 new jobs and grow 0.5 percent.” 3 For comparison, total nonfarm employment rose by 2,800 jobs (0.9 percent) from November 2018 to November 2019. For the same period, employment in the nation grew by 1.5 percent. CEDBR forecast a slowing of the growth of the Wichita economy, and that was well before the announcements of layoffs at Texron and Spirit.

    What to do?

    A Wichita Eagle editorial suggests diversifying the local economy. That’s been a goal for decades. But it hasn’t happened. 4

    The Eagle also advises “swift, decisive action,” taking “economic development off the back burner, where it’s languished for years.” This is surprising, as organizations like Greater Wichita Partnership are devoted to the task of economic development. GWP tells us, “Fast-forwarding economic growth is at the heart of the Greater Wichita Partnership’s mission. 5 The cost of employing its two top executives topped $485,000 in 2018. It also paid $115,000 to share an executive with another agency. 6 If the Eagle thinks this is practicing economic development at a slow simmer, we need to make a few big changes.

    The Eagle also calls for “generous funding streams.” This may be a reference to the common perception that Wichita has few economic development incentives available. But we have about the same as everyone else: Forgiveness of property and sales taxes, tax increment funding, refunds of employee state withholding taxes, sales tax districts, investment tax credits, historic tax credits, loans, parking easements, grants, and regulatory relief. The city says it no longer uses cash incentives, which is not true.

    The Eagle notes some bright spots, mentioning specifically, “Cargill’s decision to stay in Wichita.” But that was a decision to stay, and it came at great cost to the city.

    We need to say no to incentives for large firms.

    There’s plenty of evidence that young business firms are the key to economic growth. 7 But Wichita’s economic development policies, as evidenced by the lavishing of subsidy on Spirit and Cargill, are definitely stacked against the entrepreneur.

    These subsidies and practices are harmful to the Wichita economy, creating a strangling effect on entrepreneurship and young companies. As large subsidized companies escape paying taxes, others have to pay. This increases the burden of the cost of government on everyone else — in particular on the companies we need to nurture.

    Instead, Wichita relies on targeted investment in our future. Our elected officials and bureaucrats believe they have the ability to select which companies are worthy of public investment, and which are not. It’s a form of centralized planning by government that shapes the future direction of the Wichita economy. It hasn’t been working.

    —
    Notes

    1. *The Amazon HQ2 Fiasco Was No Outlier.* Available at https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-amazon-hq2-fiasco-was-no-outlier-11544800749. ↩
    2. Upjohn Institute. Available at https://www.upjohn.org/research-highlights/how-effective-are-local-economic-development-incentives. ↩
    3. Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University. Wichita Employment Forecast. October 3, 2019. Available at https://www.cedbr.org/content/2019/eoc/2020-wichita-forecast.pdf. ↩
    4. Weeks, Bob. Wichita aerospace manufacturing concentration. Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/economics/wichita-aerospace-manufacturing-concentration/. ↩
    5. https://greaterwichitapartnership.org/about_us/about_us. ↩
    6. IRS form 990 for 2018. ↩
    7. Jason Wiens and Chris Jackson. *The Importance of Young Firms for Economic Growth. * Available at https://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/resources/entrepreneurship-policy-digest/the-importance-of-young-firms-for-economic-growth. ↩
  • Business improvement district on tap in Wichita

    Business improvement district on tap in Wichita

    The Douglas Design District seeks to transform from a voluntary business organization to a tax-funded branch of government.

    Tomorrow the Wichita City Council will consider forming a business improvement district (BID) in east-central Wichita. Previously, city documents offered some explanation regarding the district: 1

    First, there already exists a voluntary organization: “The Douglas Design District (DDD) is a voluntary organization of over 300 local businesses located near Douglas Avenue between Washington Avenue and Oliver Avenue. In 2017, the DDD established a five-year strategic plan to become a financially self-sustaining organization that is not reliant on elective membership.”

    The purpose of a business improvement district: “A BID provides for the administration and financing of additional and extended services to businesses within the district and is funded by the City levying a mandatory service fee on the businesses within the district.”

    Who will collect, and who will spend? “While the City levies the service fee, it can contract with a third-party organization such as the DDD to operate the BID. The approach is similar to that used by the City to contract with the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation in downtown.”

    All this is repeated in the agenda packet for this week’s meeting. 2

    The action on the agenda this week finalizes the district’s funding mechanism: “The annual fee ranges from $100 to $550 depending on the size of the business and is anticipated to generate approximately $50,000 a year.” By size, the city means the number of square feet. If a business or property owner does not pay, the city may start collection activity, although what that means is unspecified: “If any delinquent Fee or penalty is not paid within sixty (60) days from the date on which the Fee or penalty became delinquent, the City may give notice to the business of its intention to initiate a collection action.”

    Are BIDs a good idea? Most information about them is provided by their boosters, that is, those who directly benefit from the service fee, which is really a tax. But there are some doubters. The New Republic, by no means a conservative publication, printed a piece arguing against BIDs, stating: “But too often BIDs have turned against the businesses they were meant to serve, making the cost of entry into a new area even higher for local merchants, or lacking the transparency needed to instill trust from the community.” 3

    A larger and more balanced look at BIDs comes from Washington Monthly in 2018:

    The privatized structure of BIDs may raise liberals’ hackles, but it’s clear that BIDs can be a useful tool to remake neighborhoods into places where people actually want to spend their time. Many big-city mayors — who are overwhelmingly Democratic — have thrown their weight behind them. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently doled out grants totaling $300,000 to five neighborhoods thinking about forming their own BIDs. (One of the grantees, Dupont Circle, with the decaying park, will start collecting taxes from business owners in the fall.)

    Still, there are real downsides to BIDs for renters and small business owners, who will not benefit from rising property values and may ultimately be pushed out of the area. Luckily, this isn’t a hugely difficult problem to remedy. The best, and easiest, way to revamp how BIDs are run is through city halls; they’re the ones who legislate what BIDs can and can’t do, while holding them accountable to the public. But too often, they renege on that responsibility. 4

    From Canada, harsh criticism:

    In this paper, we propose and develop the concept of “socio-economic hygiene” to denote the ways in which neoliberal Western urban space is spatially regulated and re-oriented towards consumption in a way that reinforces social exclusion. … We conclude by tracking how sociological strategies of “hygiene” have moved from racial and biological features to features of place and socioeconomic status, and how BIDs, resembling genocidal states in certain ways, use these strategies to continually justify their own existence. 5

    Civil society, or government?

    What should trouble everyone is the replacement of civil society with political society. Edward H. Crane explains: “There are basically only two ways to organize society: Coercively, through government mandates, or voluntarily, through the private interaction of individuals and associations. … In a civil society, you make the choices about your life. In a political society, someone else makes those choices.”

    Right now DDD is a voluntary organization. Civil society, in other words. But now it is proposed to replace it with political society.

    Why trade voluntary cooperation for the force of government? The annual report of the DDD (included in the city council agenda packet in 2018) explains: “Approximately 1/3 of businesses in DDD’s project area are DDD members yet ALL businesses benefit from DDD’s efforts. A BID eliminates this ‘free rider’ problem and, if implemented, would allow DDD to have a singular focus on implementing the BID business plan rather than always chasing membership.” For emphasis, the report notes: “THE PAYMENT OF THE BID ASSESSMENT WILL REPLACE MEMBERSHIP DUES.”

    Another term for chasing membership is selling your product by showing how it creates value. If the formation of the BID is successful, the Douglas Design District will be relieved of this necessity. Will having a guaranteed source of revenue make DDD more or less responsive to its members?

    Also, the DDD annual report states: “A BID assessment is not a tax.” But for those who decide to skip paying this tax? After a few years, they will experience the blunt power of government tax collection.

    Taxation without transparency

    The agenda packet states this about the relationship between the city and the district: “While the City levies the service fee, it can contract with a third-party organization such as the DDD to operate the BID.”

    Wichita has similar organizations. One is the Wichita Downtown Development Corporation, now known as Downtown Wichita. This organization is funded nearly entirely by tax revenue from an improvement district. Yet, it refuses to make its spending records public, and the city supports that decision. 6

    Another similar taxpayer-funded organization is the city’s convention and tourism bureau, which has gone by several names over the years. Regarding it, in 2012 I wrote:

    We’ve learned that city council members rely on — as Randy Brown told the council last year — facile legal reasoning to avoid oversight: “It may not be the obligation of the City of Wichita to enforce the Kansas Open Records Act legally, but certainly morally you guys have that obligation. To keep something cloudy when it should be transparent I think is foolishness on the part of any public body, and a slap in the face of the citizens of Kansas. By every definition that we’ve discovered, organizations such as Go Wichita are subject to the Kansas Open Records Act.” 7

    Of interest is a segment from the KAKE Television public affairs program “This Week in Kansas” where the failure of the Wichita City Council, especially council member Pete Meitzner (district 2, east Wichita), to recognize the value of open records and open government is discussed. Video is here.

    Since this time, the city has formed a business improvement district known as a TBID. It covers all hotels in the city and imposes an additional 2.75 percent tax to hotel bills, although the city and hotels call it a “City Tourism Fee.” 8 I’ve not asked for records of this spending, but I am sure the request would be rejected.

    Will the Douglas Design District follow the standard set by Wichita’s other improvement districts and evade accountability and transparency?

    Results from current improvement districts

    The Washington Monthly piece mentions that city halls can hold BIDs accountable. But lack of transparency works against oversight and accountability.

    Then, if anyone wonders what about the results of Wichita’s improvement districts, here are a few findings:

    • For the past decade business activity in downtown Wichita has been on a downhill trend. The data for 2017 (the most recent year for data) holds good news, with business activity rising. It isn’t the vibrant growth we’ve been told is happening in downtown Wichita, but at least things are not getting worse. 9
    • Truthfulness is in short supply. The Downtown Wichita organization has been caught in either a huge lie or gross incompetence regarding its claim of the number of people working in downtown Wichita. After brought to its attention, the number is no longer used. 10
    • Wichita economic development officials use a circuitous method of estimating the population of downtown Wichita, producing a number much higher than Census Bureau estimates. 11
    • Looking at hotel guest tax receipts, which are a surrogate for total hotel room revenue, we observe that of the largest markets in Kansas, Wichita has experienced nearly the least growth in hotel guest tax collections since 2010. 12

    Despite this record, Wichita City Hall seems satisfied with these results.

    —
    Notes

    1. City of Wichita. Agenda for August 21, 2018, Item IV-1. Available at http://www.wichita.gov/Council/Agendas/08-21-2018%20City%20Council%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf. ↩
    2. City of Wichita. Agenda for January 14, 2020, Item V-4. Available at https://wichita.gov/Council/Agendas/01-14-2020%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf. ↩
    3. Max Rivlin-Nadler. Business Improvement Districts Ruin Neighborhoods. The New Republic, February 19, 2016. Available at https://newrepublic.com/article/130188/business-improvement-districts-ruin-neighborhoods. ↩
    4. Saahil Desai. One Landlord, One Vote. Available at https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/july-august-2018/one-landlord-one-vote/. ↩
    5. Sanscartier, Matthew D.; Gacek, James. Out, Damned Spot: Socio-economic Hygienic Practices of Business Improvement Districts. Canadian Journal of Urban Research. Winter 2016, Vol. 25 Issue 2, p73-85. ↩
    6. Weeks, Bob. Wichita’s open records policy is contrary to the interests of citizens. Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-government/wichita-open-records-policy-contrary-interests-citizens/. ↩
    7. Weeks, Bob. Wichita, again, fails at open government. Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/open-records/wichita-again-fails-at-open-government/. ↩
    8. Weeks, Bob. Wichita seeks to add more tax to hotel bills. Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-government/wichita-seeks-add-tax-hotel-bills/. ↩
    9. Weeks, Bob. Downtown Wichita jobs rise Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/economics/downtown-wichita-jobs-rise/. ↩
    10. Weeks, Bob. Downtown Wichita jobs, sort of. Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-government/downtown-wichita-jobs/. ↩
    11. Weeks, Bob. Downtown Wichita population is up Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-government/downtown-wichita-population-is-up-2018/. ↩
    12. Weeks, Bob. Updated: Kansas hotel guest tax collections Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/economics/updated-kansas-hotel-guest-tax-collections/. ↩
  • Wichita jobs and employment, November 2019

    Wichita jobs and employment, November 2019

    For the Wichita metropolitan area in November 2019, the labor force is up, the number of unemployed persons is down, the unemployment rate is down, and the number of people working is up when compared to the same month one year ago. Seasonal data shows small increases in labor force and jobs from October.

    Data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the United States Department of Labor, shows a slowly improving employment situation for the Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area.

    Click charts and tables for larger versions.

    Total nonfarm employment rose from 303,600 last November to 306,100 this November. That’s an increase of 2,800 jobs or 0.9 percent. (This data is not seasonally adjusted, so month-to-month comparisons are not valid.) For the same period, employment in the nation grew by 1.5 percent. The unemployment rate in November 2019 was 3.2 percent, down from 3.3 percent one year ago.

    Considering seasonally adjusted data from the household survey, the labor force rose by 634 persons (0.2 percent) in November 2019 from October 2019, the number of unemployed persons rose by 10 (0.1 percent), and the unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, unchanged from October. The number of employed persons not working on farms rose to 301,338 in November from 300,714 the prior month, an increase of 495 persons, or 0.2 percent.

    The following chart of the monthly change in labor force and employment shows the rise in employment and labor force over the last five months.

    The following chart of changes from the same month one year ago shows a decline in the rate of growth of both employment and labor force. The values are (almost all) growing, but at a slower pace each month until the last three months.

    The following chart of changes in employment from the same month of the previous year shows some months when the Wichita MSA performed better than the nation. Over the past 12 months, the average monthly job growth for the nation was 1.49 percent, and for the Wichita MSA, 0.82 percent.

    The following two charts show changes in jobs for Wichita and the nation over longer time periods. The change is calculated from the same month one year ago. For times when the Wichita line was above the nation, Wichita was growing faster than the nation. This was often the case during the decades starting in 1990 and 2000. Since 2010, however, Wichita has rarely outperformed the nation and sometimes has been far below the nation.

  • It may become more expensive in Wichita

    It may become more expensive in Wichita

    The City of Wichita plans to create a large district where extra sales tax will be charged.

    At next Tuesday’s Wichita City Council meeting, the council will consider imposing additional taxes in downtown Wichita and Delano. The new tax district includes the new baseball park and large amounts of surrounding land, some of the land in Waterwalk east of the Arkansas River, and land as far north as First and Waco.

    The new tax is known as a Community Improvement District, or CID. In these districts, merchants charge additional sales tax which is used to benefit the owners of property in the district. In this case, the city is proposing to add two cents per dollar to the existing 7.5 percent sales tax.

    City documents give this for the use of the funds: “CID revenue will be used for the design and construction of the stadium utilities, parking, and other improvements related to the stadium, river corridor improvements and surrounding development on the west bank, within the district.”

    Of note, the city proposes to pass the ordinance on emergency first reading.

    Following, a map of the CID. Click for a larger version.

  • GDP by metropolitan area and component

    GDP by metropolitan area and component

    An interactive visualization of gross domestic product by metropolitan area and industry.

    The Bureau of Economic Analysis, an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, gathers data about economic output, known as gross domestic product. This visualization presents this data in tabular and graphic form.

    The GDP figures are real, meaning adjusted for inflation. They are annual numbers through 2018. The release this month also includes revisions for the prior year. In the case of Wichita, the revision was significant. See Wichita economy shrinks, and a revision for details.

    A nearby example from the visualization compares Wichita metro GDP growth to that of the nation’s metropolitan areas.

    Click here to learn more and access this visualization.

    Click for larger.
    Example from the visualization. Click for larger.
    Example from the visualization. Click for larger.
  • Wichita economy grows, and a revision

    Wichita economy grows, and a revision

    The Wichita economy grew in 2018, and revised statistics show growth in 2017.

    Statistics released this month by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, report real gross domestic product (GDP) figures for metropolitan areas. Also included are revised statistics for previous years.

    For 2018, the Wichita metropolitan area GDP, in real dollars, grew by 3.3 percent. Revisions to 2017 data show that Wichita GDP grew by 1.7 percent in 2017. Last year BEA reported growth for that year of -1.4 percent.

    In the statistics released this month, GDP in 2018 was $32,832,296 thousand, measured in chained 2012 dollars. In 2017 it was $31,780,917 thousand, a change of $1,051,379 thousand or 3.3 percent. For the nation, real GDP grew by 2.9 percent.

    The revision to the 2017 GDP may come as a surprise. The nearby chart shows that while GDP rose in that year, employment declined.

  • Kansas jobs, November 2019

    Kansas jobs, November 2019

    Employment and the labor force rose, both by small amounts, in Kansas in November 2019 compared to the prior month. Kansas continues to perform well in year-over-year growth when compared to the nation.

    Data released this week from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the United States Department of Labor, shows a mostly improving picture for employment in Kansas for November 2019. (Click charts and tables for larger versions.)

    Using seasonally adjusted data, from October 2019 to November 2019, nonfarm employment in Kansas rose by 1,200, which is 0.1 percent. Over the year, the number of Kansas nonfarm jobs for November 2019 rose by 16,800 or 1.2 percent over last November. This is using seasonally adjusted data. The non-adjusted figure is nearly the same at 17,500, also 1.2 percent.

    Over the year (November 2018 to November 2019), the Kansas labor force is up by 6,750 (0.5 percent) using seasonally adjusted data, with an increase of 0.3 percent over the last month. Non-seasonal data shows an increase of 14,325 (1.0 percent) in the labor force over the year.

    The number of unemployed persons rose from October 2019 to November 2019 by 250, or 0.5 percent. The unemployment rate was 3.1 percent in November, down 0.2 percentage points from one year ago, and unchanged from October.

    Comparing Kansas to the nation: Using seasonal data, Kansas nonfarm jobs increased by 1.18 percent over the past 12 months, while national jobs grew by 1.47 percent. Non seasonal data shows Kansas nonfarm jobs rising by 1.22 percent over the past 12 months, while national jobs grew by 1.49 percent.

    Click charts and tables for larger versions.

    In the following chart of showing job changes from the same month one year ago, Kansas is always below the national rate, although for September 2019 Kansas nearly met the national rate. The recent trend shows Kansas doing well compared to the nation, just slightly below the national rate.

    In the following chart showing job changes from the previous month, Kansas has outperformed the nation in some months, but has fallen behind recently.