An employment forecast released Thursday projects continued economic growth for both the Wichita area and Kansas next year. Wichita State University’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research (CEDBR) conducts industry-level employment surveys each year to help formulate its forecasts. CEDBR Director Jeremy Hill says the Wichita area is expected to grow about 0.5% in 2020, adding about 1,600 new jobs.
The workforce expanded by 1.3% this year. He says the slow job growth pattern is a turnaround from 2017 when the region lost jobs. “We’re getting a lot of our legs back underneath us,” Hill says, “so as we go into that momentum, we also head in with a lot of this uncertainty on the global and national economy that gets a little concerning.” Hill says a national or global recession could affect Wichita’s export-oriented manufacturing industries. After a robust 3.4% growth in 2018, the production sector’s growth is expected to slow to 0.6% in 2020.
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