The leading economic indicator for Kansas rose to 59.4 in December from November’s 56.9, according to Creighton University economics professor Ernie Goss.

Other component readings for the state were 76.9 for new orders, 64 for production, 50 for inventories, 42.6 for delivery speed and 44.4 for employment.

December’s employment reading represented the fourth straight month that the employment reading has moved below growth-neutral, indicating that businesses reduced jobs again for the month.

The Asian beef import ban will lower the state’s 2004 job growth rate by 1.3 percent assuming white meat exports do not replace beef losses. That would be a loss of 17,000 jobs in the Sunflower State — second highest in the region, surpassed only by an estimated loss of 21,00 jobs in Nebraska, Goss said.