Kansas’s unemployment rate has risen for the fourth consecutive month, reports The Lawrence Journal-World.
The jobless rate in the Sunflower State rose to 4.4 percent in September as the state lost an estimated 2,100 private-sector jobs.
All told this year, Kansas has lost 6,300 private-sector jobs. Meanwhile, government jobs grew both in September and over the year as a whole. Much of September’s public sector job growth can be explained by teachers returning to work for the school year.
The largest portion of private sector losses occurred in business and professional services. The Kansas unemployment rate hit a low in May and his been rising ever since.
The U.S. as a whole added 156,000 jobs in September.