Topeka ? Students seeking summer employment and a temporary layoff in the aviation industry pushed the state’s jobless rate to 5.1 percent in June.

The June unemployment rate, released Friday, was an increase from the revised 4.4 percent in May but better than the national average of 6.4 percent. A year ago, Kansas’ unemployment rate was 5.3 percent.

Bill Layes, chief of labor market information for the Department of Human Resources, said the increase, while large, was not unexpected. The jobless rate for June traditionally increases as students flood the job market for summer employment, along with nonteaching staff from schools and universities.

However, this year’s number is inflated by the seven-week furlough of 6,000 workers at the Wichita Cessna plant. The layoffs, which began in late May, pushed the Wichita area’s June unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, up from 5.7 percent in May. The Wichita area includes Butler, Harvey and Sedgwick counties.

“This is the first month that we would have had those folks show up,” Layes said. “It’s a question if they will be back to work in August.”

The influx from Cessna and students pushed first-time jobless claims to more than 21,500 in June, up from 12,800 in May and 10,700 in June 2002.

Each of the state’s three other metropolitan areas also saw unemployment rates increase. The rate for the Topeka area, which includes Shawnee County, rose to 4.3 percent, up from 3.6 percent in May.

The Lawrence area’s jobless rate, which includes Douglas County, was 4.6 percent, up from 3.8 percent in May. The June rate was in contrast to the 5.9 percent rate of a year earlier when Sprint closed a call center and shed nearly 500 jobs.

Unemployment for the Kansas portion of the Kansas City metropolitan area was 5.8 percent in June, up slightly from May’s 5.5 percent.