Parkinson says rise in Kan. unemployment rate discouraging, urges lawmakers to find solutions

Parkinson calls Kan. jobless rate ‘discouraging’

TOPEKA, Kan. — Gov. Mark Parkinson called Kansas’ first unemployment report for 2010 “discouraging,” urging legislators Wednesday to put politics aside in finding solutions.

The state Department of Labor says Kansas’ jobless rate in January was 7.1 percent — up from 6.2 percent in December and 6.3 percent in January 2009. It’s the highest rate since August, when unemployment in the state hit 7.2 percent.

Those statistics explain in part why Kansas continues to see a decline in revenue collections through the first two months of 2010. Kansas is facing a gap of $88 million between tax collections and budget expenditures in the fiscal year that ends June 30. Parkinson announced a plan Friday to reduce that amount by $85 million.

“We must do all we can to prevent the additional layoffs of school teachers, civil servants and parole officers,” the Democratic governor said. “Stabilizing the state budget is an important part of getting our economy back on track.”

Legislators are considering several proposals to increase taxes, including the rates on sales, liquor and tobacco, aimed at avoiding additional cuts to education, public safety and social services in the 2011 budget. Critics say such increases would hurt families and businesses and delay any economic recovery.

The labor report released Wednesday said Kansas has lost 54,100 jobs over the past 12 months. The hardest hit sector has been manufacturing, which has shed 24,700 jobs, a 13.7 percent decrease, with the bulk coming from the aerospace industry.

Only one sector, education and health services, posted a gain in new hires from 2009 to 2010, adding 2,300 jobs. Most of the new jobs were in health care.

Parkinson said the report shows that Kansas continues to be affected by the economic downturn.

“While we remain below the national unemployment rate, there are still too many Kansans without a job,” he said.

County unemployment rates ranged from a low of 2.5 percent in Gray County in southwest Kansas to 13.1 percent in Linn County along the Missouri state line.

A state labor economist said there are signs that the pace of layoffs is slowing but no indications yet that Kansas employers are starting to hire workers.

“Further review of the unemployment data for the past five months suggests a stabilizing trend in the Kansas job market,” economist Tyler Tenbrink said. “We’ll be watching this activity closely over the next couple of months to see if this trend continues.”

There were 33,075 initial claims for unemployment benefits in January, down from 36,216 in December, but up from 29,094 in January 2009. The number of Kansas residents who continued to receive benefits was down about 2,600 claims from December to 313,032 in January and up from 181,697 in January 2009.

On the Net:

Kansas Department of Labor: www.dol.ks.gov

Governor’s office: www.governor.ks.gov