HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Kansas Department of Labor on Friday released the latest unemployment numbers. Those numbers show the unemployment rate in Hutchinson dropped some in April compared to the numbers in March. The rate for the city is now at 4.4 percent, a drop from the 4.8 percent reported in March, but still a bit higher than April of last year when the rate was 4.2 percent.
The rate for Reno County is also at 4.4 percent, a slight drop from March when the rate was at 4.5 percent, but again higher than April of last year when the rate was 4 percent.
According to the numbers, 1,378 residents of the county were looking for work, but most of those are in the city.
Other area counties varied with most seeing a slight increase or no change. McPherson County had the lowest rate of any of the area counties at 3.1 percent, however even that was slightly higher than April of last year when the rate was at 2.9 percent.
Harvey and Sedgwick counties rates didn’t change, while Kingman, Pratt, Rice and Stafford counties each saw a slight increase.
The state’s April seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent, up from 4.2 percent in March and down from 4.5 percent in April 2014.