KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas Department of Labor reported a 11.2 percent unemployment rate for the month of April.
The unemployment rate was just 2.8 percent in March and was 3.2 percent in April of 2019.
Department of Labor Secretary Delia Garcia attributed the high rate to the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the U.S. unemployment also increased in April, to 14.7 percent.
The department estimates 130,400 non-farm jobs were lost in Kansas from March to April. Of those, 121,600 private sector jobs were lost and 8,800 government jobs were lost.
Labor economist Emilie Doerksen said that the hospitality sector accounted for 50,200 of the jobs lost.
