Topeka ? After a tough period of layoffs, the state job market seems to be rebounding, Kansas Labor Secretary Jim Garner said Wednesday.

“The state economy appears to have turned a corner, but we still have a long way to go,” Garner said during his annual report on the state of labor.

Garner said the state gained 9,000 jobs in 2004 after having lost 14,000 the year before.

In the fiscal year that ended June 30, the agency processed 173,000 initial unemployment claims and paid a record $353 million in benefits, he said.

Kansas was hit hard by the post-Sept. 11 recession, especially the slump in manufacturing of aircraft. In the Wichita area, more than 12,000 aircraft workers lost their jobs between 2001 and 2003, according to the state’s Economic and Demographic Report.

But Garner said some of those jobs were returning, and noted the selection of Wichita to build part of Boeing’s new 7E7 Dreamliner aircraft.

Statewide, July’s unemployment rate was 4.6 percent with nearly 70,000 people unemployed out of a work force of 1.3 million.

Garner cited a couple of positive developments in the state’s efforts to boost economic growth. They are recent legislation to develop bioscience research and other industries, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ reorganization of work force training programs.

Garner said the department was reducing paper work and increasing consumer access through the Internet.

He criticized the Kansas Chamber of Commerce for insisting that the workers’ compensation system in Kansas is too expensive. He said national studies showed workers’ compensation insurance premiums had decreased $121 million since 1993, while Kansas ranks 43rd in benefits to injured workers.

“If anything, we should reform the system to provide better benefits for the working men and women of Kansas,” he said.

The chamber has said its efforts to change workers’ compensation laws reflected the wishes of its employer members.

Kansas’ workplace injury and illness rate has declined by more than 27 percent during the past decade, but work-related deaths increased to 44 during the past fiscal year compared with 42 the year before, Garner said.