There was an average of 15,452 unemployed people in the Wichita metropolitan area in the third quarter of 2015, approximately 40 percent of whom collected unemployment insurance benefits. In the third quarter of 2015 there were approximately 6,164 people, age 16 and over, who collected unemployment insurance benefits. That is a decrease of approximately 40 percent from the second quarter of 2015.
Read the full report on the demographic profile of Wichita unemployment insurance beneficiaries.
In the third quarter of 2015, four industries accounted for 58.9 percent of unemployment insurance beneficiaries in the Wichita area; manufacturing, administrative and support and waste management and remediation services, wholesale trade, and construction. These four industries also have a proportionately high level of unemployment insurance, when compared to area employment. However, of these four industries only one had an increase in the number of unemployment insurance beneficiaries, wholesale trade.
Across all subsectors of wholesale trade, there is a significantly lower level of educational attainment in beneficiaries of unemployment insurance than in the general labor force. Fifty-six percent of these unemployment insurance beneficiaries have no more education than a high school diploma.