NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson economy is strong, according to an annual survey from the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce.
"We survey our Chamber members every January," said Chamber CEO Debra Teufel. "We ask them to take a look back at what sales did in the previous year, as well as what employment has done, then do they expect that to be growing? The good news is that most of the respondents said that last year was a pretty solid year. Sales actually increased, by and large. Most of them also have a pretty fair outlook for this year. There were several of the companies that responded that said they feel that this could be a year that they continue to invest in their business, whether that's in physical facilities or in new machinery and equipment."
There are still challenges ahead for local business.
"Workforce is a challenge for everyone," Teufel said. "We are not immune to it. They kind of rated their workforce based on soft skills and basic skills required for the job. Most businesses feel like they can train people for the actual technical aspects of the job, but they want folks to have soft skills when they come in. That's the reason we do some of the programs we do with the schools to prepare young people for those jobs."
Good people are as difficult to find as they have ever been in Reno County.
"We are at really historic unemployment lows," Teufel said. "That's a good thing, by one measure, but it does almost feel like we are at full employment. The most recent number from the Kansas workforce system shows we're at 2.2% unemployment, which equates to about 650 individuals that are qualifying for unemployment of some form in Reno County. That is down from, last year, we were hovering in the 3% range. To hit 2.2%, I would say is almost a historic low. We may have hit it one other time since I've been here in Reno County. When I came here in 2016, we were in the 5.5% range."
This is as low as unemployment has been since April 2022.
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