NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Creighton University economist Ernie Goss believes that the employment picture is going to be mixed going forward, especially in the Midwest.
"You look at the employment level for Kansas and the region, we're almost back to Feb. 2020, in terms of the employment. That's well below the national number. The national, U.S. economy is well above the Feb. 2020 number. Kansas is about at its 2020 number. We're not back to where we should be, absent the pandemic."
None the less the people Goss surveys aren't as concerned about hiring as he thought they might be.
"I still think we're going to see layoffs in some of the industry," Goss said. "The unemployment rate in Kansas is likely to rise, but not nearly what we thought. In other words, maybe the Federal Reserve is getting a soft landing. That is, a slowdown in growth moving toward zero and perhaps avoiding a negative number."
Our interview with Goss was prior to the Governor's announcement Thursday of a new semiconductor project in Wichita. However, that project still needs federal funding to get off of the ground.