EMMIE BOESE
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON — Jeremy Hill, Director of Center for Economic Development and Business Research for Wichita State University, used the layers of an onion to analyze the Kansas economy at the 2024 Reno County Economic Outlook Conference. Hill presented on Tuesday morning, Feb. 6 at Crystal Ballroom at the Burt.
He started off his presentation with the "outer layer" of the onion by assessing the current economic environment in Kansas which contained four parts. They were gross domestic product and corporate profits, employee cost, inflation and a survey of expenditure minimization (EMP) conditions.
Hill reported that 2023 has been a strong year for Kansas economically. Kansas added 39,500 jobs and the economy expanded 2.3%.
"We know if we've had failed surges, we aren't going to find a whole lot of people," Hill said. "So we've kind of gotten to this state of saying, that's still a positive economy even though most people aren't staying the same. This is more of we are an expanding economy, I just can't find the people."
Statistics regarding the Kansas labor force did not show as much growth. In 2023, the estimation for expansion was 3.0% with 1,518,584 labor force workers in 2023. It is forecasted at 3.0% in 2024 with 1,524,614 people in the labor force.
"We want a lot more than 3.0%," Hill said. "This is where we feel there are a lot of costs on the labor side, right? We are feeling that labor is costing a whole lot. However, add inflation into this and say what's going on with inflation? This is the middle ground. At the US level that means labor's actually cheaper. So all that we are complaining about on the sticker shock, is that it is getting more expensive. However, the reality based on inflation, is actually getting cheaper. And guess what? It's getting even more cheaper here in the midwest."
More information from Hill's Kansas economy presentation is available at cedbr.org/2024-reno.
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