The Unemployment rate for Hutchinson and Reno County jumped higher again last month after it had dropped in April.
The rate for May in Hutchinson is at 7%, an increase from 6.3% in April and higher then May of last year when the rate was at 6.2%. There were 1-thousand, 432 looking for work in the city in the month of May.
The number for Reno in May also showed increase at 5.7%, up from 5.2% in April. That number is also higher then May 2012, when the rate was at 5%.
There were 1-thousand, 928 residents in the county looking for a job in May, but most of those were in the city of Hutchinson.
Looking at surrounding counties, their rates also climbed some in May compared to April.
Harvey County’s rate now sits at 5.6%, up from 4.8% in April. Kingman is at 5.5%, up from 5.1. McPherson County is at 4.3%, a jump in May compared to the rate of 3.7% in April. Pratt County is at 4.5%, up from 4% in April. Rice County also saw an increase going from 3.9% in April to 4.5% in May. Stafford County with its limited population has a rate of 5.1%, up from 4.4% in April.
Sedgwick County with the largest population of any of the counties had a rate in May of 6.7%, up from 6.1% in April.
The Labor Department still reported the state posted a healthy increase in jobs over the month. They say seasonally adjusted private sector jobs grew by 8,700.
Not seasonally adjusted data showed an addition of 10,300 private sector jobs from April to May and a gain of 14,400 jobs from May 2012 to May 2013.
The manufacturing industry has seen consistent increases in the number of hours worked by production workers which has been above 40 hours per week for several months. This typically is followed by increases in employment, as seen in this month’s report.
The not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased from 5.3 percent to 5.8 percent (mostly due to seasonal changes) while the smooth seasonally adjusted rate saw a slight increase from 5.6 percent to 5.7 percent.