TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) New federal figures show that Kansas ranked 28th in February among states and the District of Columbia in its percentage of private-sector job growth over the previous year.
Seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that Kansas had 21,000 more residents employed in private-sector, nonfarm jobs in February than in February 2014. That’s an increase of nearly 1.9 percent, to 1.15 million.
Utah had the nation’s best growth rate of more than 4.8 percent.
Three neighboring states outperformed Kansas. Colorado experienced growth of 3.7 percent; Texas had 3.6 percent, and Arkansas saw 3 percent.
But Kansas did better than Missouri and Oklahoma, which both saw growth of about 1.7 percent.
Kansas also outperformed Iowa’s 1.4 percent and Nebraska’s 1.1 percent.
