A slumping economy in 2002 cost Douglas County 600 jobs, according to numbers released Monday by state officials.

In its year-end unemployment report, the Kansas Department of Human Resources said Douglas County in 2002 saw its number of jobs decrease 1.1 percent from 53,100 to 52,500.

Douglas County’s unemployment rate, though, dropped for the year. It finished December 2002 at 3.5 percent, compared with 3.9 percent a year earlier.

Area economists and economic development leaders said the numbers were about what they expected.

“I’m not surprised to see that we’ve had some significant job losses during the year,” said Lynn Parman, the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce’s vice president of economic development. “I think all of our industrial sectors are feeling some effects from the national economy.”

The job losses ran slightly counter to the statewide trend. The state’s number of jobs held virtually steady, increasing by 900, which is less than a full percentage point.

In Douglas County, the retail and wholesale trade sector saw the largest number of lost jobs in 2002. At the end of the year the category had 1,100 fewer jobs than it did in December 2001. That represented a decrease of 6 percent. Statewide, the number of wholesale and retail trade jobs was virtually unchanged.

David Burress, research economist at Kansas University’s Policy Research Institute, said the county’s decline reflected a couple of factors.

“My gut reaction is that we could be overbuilt in the retail sector,” said Burress, who also is a Lawrence-Douglas County planning commissioner. “That, combined with a recession that caused people to spend less money, may be what led to the job losses.”

The county’s service sector, which includes a variety of nonretail jobs that provide services to other residents or businesses, added the most jobs in 2002. The category grew by 800 jobs, or 6 percent, which was significantly higher than the sector’s statewide average of 2.2 percent.

“My guess is that our service sector continues to increase at that rate because of our residential growth,” Parman said.

The number of manufacturing jobs in the county held steady at 5,400. Parman said that was an accomplishment considering the statewide average dropped 2.4 percent and some cities, like Wichita, lost nearly 10 percent of their manufacturing jobs.

Despite the job losses, Douglas County’s unemployment rate declined because more residents were able to find work outside the county.

In December 2002 there were 2,128 Douglas County residents unemployed, compared with 2,202 in December 2001. The unemployment rate dropped from 3.9 percent to 3.5 percent despite the county’s work force growing by approximately 3,000 people during the year.

Burress said the numbers revealed that a greater percentage of county residents were commuting.

“We have more people with jobs but fewer jobs locally. That has to mean you have more people going outside the county to work,” Burress said. “That’s a concern because every time you add people who live here but don’t work here, that means you are not adding enough new jobs. That tends to increase the tax load on everyone else.”