HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The latest unemployment numbers show the rate for Hutchinson in February dropped slightly from January.
The February numbers released Friday by the Kansas Department of Labor show the Hutchinson rate at 4.8 percent down from 5 percent in January. It’s also lower then the 5.2 percent in February of last year. 948 residents of the city were looking for work last month.
Reno County’s rate also dropped slightly, going from 4.6 percent in January to 4.5 percent in February. That’s also slightly lower the February of last year when the rate was 4.9 percent. There were 1,410 residents of the county without work last month, but most of those were in the city of Hutchinson.
Harvey County saw their rate drop from 4.5 percent in January to 3.8 percent on February. Other area county rates include Kingman at 4.2 percent, McPherson County at 3 percent, Pratt County at 3.6 percent which is actually higher then in January when their rate was 3.2 percent. Rice County stayed the same at 3.5 percent, Stafford County is at 4.1 percent and Sedgwick County with its large population is at 5.1 percent.
The state’s Feb. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.2 percent, unchanged from the Jan. and down from 4.6 percent in Feb. 2014.