WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Blame Wichita for Kansas’ failure to regain all the jobs the state lost in the recession.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the Wichita metro remains 16,000 jobs down from 2008. About half of the jobs that disappeared from the Wichita-area economy were for people directly employed in aircraft manufacturing in 2008.
Because of that, when the Wichita area is counted, Kansas is down 9,000 jobs from May 2008. Without Wichita, the state is up about 7,000 jobs.
The bright spot for job growth in Kansas is in rural areas and small town, driven in part by more oil drilling. But for most of the state’s biggest cities, there were fewer jobs or about the same number as in 2008.
