For the Wichita metropolitan area in August, most employment indicators improved slightly from the prior month. Wichita continues to perform poorly compared to its peers.
Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the United States Department of Labor, shows a mixed employment situation in the Wichita Metropolitan Statistical Area for August 2024.
Table 1: Comparing August 2024 to the same month of the previous year using not seasonally adjusted data from the household survey, the labor force grew, and nonfarm employment rose. The unemployment rate rose from 3.3 percent to 4.1 percent.
Click charts and tables for larger versions.
I asked ChatGPT about this table:
In August 2024, the Wichita Metropolitan Area experienced growth in both its labor force and employment compared to August 2023. The labor force increased by about 3,100 people, a 1% rise, bringing the total to over 324,000 individuals actively seeking work. Nonfarm employment grew by approximately 5,100 jobs, a 1.7% increase, reaching a total of 312,200 jobs.
Despite more people being employed, the number of unemployed individuals also went up by around 2,770, a significant 26.2% increase from the previous year. This caused the unemployment rate to rise from 3.3% in August 2023 to 4.1% in August 2024.
In summary, while the Wichita area added jobs and more people are working compared to last year, the labor force grew even more. This led to a higher unemployment rate because the number of people looking for work outpaced the number of new jobs created.
Table 2: Looking at August 2024 and the previous two months using smoothed seasonally adjusted data from the household survey, the labor force rose and the number of employed people also rose. The unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percent to 3.6 percent.
I asked ChatGPT about this table:
In August 2024, the Wichita Metropolitan Area experienced slight growth in its labor force and employment. The labor force increased by 644 people (0.2%) from July, reaching a total of 324,605 individuals actively working or seeking work. Nonfarm employment saw a modest rise of 321 jobs (0.1%), bringing the total to 312,821 positions.
However, the number of unemployed persons also went up by 323 (2.8%) compared to July, resulting in a small increase in the unemployment rate from 3.5% to 3.6%. This indicates that while more people joined the workforce and more jobs were added, not everyone found employment immediately.
Overall, the employment situation in August shows a stable but slowly growing economy, with incremental increases in both employment and unemployment figures over the summer months.
Chart 3a, the monthly change in the labor force and employment in Wichita, shows both gains and losses, with a generally positive trend since February.
Chart 6a shows changes in employment from the same month of the previous year for Wichita and the nation. The two trendlines share a similar trend, which is mostly declining.
Chart 8 shows the unemployment rate for Wichita and the nation. The rate for Wichita has been lower until July.
Chart 7 shows employment change for Wichita and a select group of peers over a period of four years, starting just before the pandemic. The metropolitan areas in this chart are near Wichita or that Wichita business leaders visited on learning expeditions. The number of jobs in Wichita has grown only slightly, and is near the middle of these peers.
Chart 8 shows changes over the month and year. In this measure, like the previous, Wichita is near the middle of its peers. Of this chart, ChatGPT said:
In August 2024, Wichita’s employment increased by a modest 0.1% compared to the previous month. However, when looking at the year-over-year data, employment in Wichita actually decreased by 0.4% compared to August 2023.
When we compare Wichita to other metropolitan areas, it becomes clear that Wichita’s employment growth is lagging. Cities like Boise City, Idaho, and Joplin, Missouri, saw higher month-over-month employment increases of 0.4%. Additionally, several areas experienced significant year-over-year employment growth—for example, Little Rock, Arkansas, saw a 2.8% increase, and San Antonio, Texas, grew by 1.9%.
Wichita’s annualized employment growth rate stands at 1.2%, which is lower than many other cities. For instance, Boise City had a rate of 4.7%, and Joplin reached 5.5%.
In summary, while Wichita did see a slight uptick in employment from the previous month, its overall growth is minimal compared to other regions. The city is experiencing a small decline in employment over the past year, indicating it’s not keeping pace with the job growth seen in many other metropolitan areas.
Charts 4a and 4b show changes in jobs for Wichita and the nation over longer periods. The change is calculated from the same month of the previous year. 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 only occasionally outperformed the nation and sometimes has been far below the nation.
(For data on all metropolitan areas in the nation, see my interactive visualization Metro area employment and unemployment.)
The link to the archived version of the BLS news release for this month may be found here.
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