New numbers out on Lawrence job growth; City Commission to consider $100K in incentives for affordable housing project

Usually in Lawrence, talk of a streak involves KU basketball, or that unfortunate incident that has you doing community service. But there is another streak we ought to talk about: Lawrence’s winning streak when it comes to jobs.

The latest federal report is out, and the Lawrence metro area in 2014 posted job gains every single month. The new numbers show that job totals in Lawrence were up for January 2015, as well. In fact, I did a little digging to figure out when the last month was that Lawrence saw a dip in jobs. The numbers show it was all the way back in Sept. 2013. That’s 16 straight months of year-over-year job growth.

If you remember, we have reported a few times over the last year about some job numbers that have looked good for Lawrence. There was a time when a report came out that said the Lawrence metro area had the highest job growth rate of any metro in the country in August 2014. (The number ultimately got revised downward, and that is why I have an only half-finished bust of the Chamber CEO in my living room.)

But the numbers have been impressive nonetheless. All these numbers, by the way, are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and its monthly Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment report. When I say Lawrence had job growth in a month, I mean that it had more jobs in that month than it did in the same month a year ago. Here’s a look at our year-over-year job growth rate by percentage in 2014:

• January: 1.4 percent

• February: 2.7 percent

• March: 3.1 percent

• April: 4.6 percent

• May: 4.0 percent

• June: 5.4 percent

• July: 7.1 percent

• August: 4.6 percent

• September: 2.2 percent

• October: 3.9 percent

• November: 1.3 percent

• December: 1.5 percent

Usually in Lawrence, the question of “What did you do last summer?” will cause you to worry greatly about your kids becoming college-age. But in 2014, it appears the answer was that a lot of people got a job. It looks like Lawrence’s job growth resurgence peaked in July.

It also is worth nothing that in most of the months of 2014, Lawrence posted the largest job growth rate of any city in Kansas. (Note: The BLS counts Kansas City as a Missouri metro area, so Lawrence was competing against Manhattan, Topeka and Wichita.)

The latest report gives us our first peek at 2015. So far, so good. The report shows there were 51,300 jobs located in Douglas County in January. That’s up from 49,800 in January 2014. That’s a 3 percent growth rate, which is better than several other regional communities. Here’s a look at the preliminary numbers:

• Kansas City: up 3.2 percent

• Manhattan: up 1.7 percent

• Topeka: up 1.7 percent

• Wichita: up 0.9 percent

• Ames, Iowa: up 4.9 percent

• Columbia, Mo.: up 1.7 percent

• Joplin, Mo.: up 2.0 percent

• St. Joseph: up 0.3 percent

Now, it is not all Champagne and roses yet when it comes to Lawrence job numbers. First, we don’t know much about these new jobs. Are they full time, good-paying jobs, or have we just seen an increase in part-time jobs in the service sector? At this point, it would just be a guess. On the job front, the two largest developments over the last year have been Hallmark Cards growing the workforce total at its Lawrence production plant, and General Dynamics adding significant numbers of people to its call center in East Hills Business Park.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Lawrence really has been stagnant on the job growth front for quite awhile. In other words, we’ve got a lot of time to make up for. I did an article in November, where I looked at our job growth performance over the last 10 years. I found that Douglas County’s job growth rate was negative 1.1 percent. During that same time period Johnson County had job growth of 10.6 percent, Riley County 15.6 percent, Wyandotte County 10.8 percent, and Sedgwick County 1.3 percent. The only metro area with negative job growth — other than Douglas County — was Shawnee County. It had negative job growth of 1 percent, which was a bit better than’ Douglas County’s showing.

But as each month passes, those numbers become a little more dated. A new narrative may be forming, and we all may soon have a new story to tell about a streak.

In other news and notes from around town:

• Both incentives and affordable housing have been a buzzword topics on the City Commission election trail. On Tuesday night, it will be a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup moment at the City Commission meeting. (Your peanut butter got into my chocolate, or maybe it was the other way around.) Regardless, what I’m trying to say is that affordable housing and incentives are wrapped up in a single issue.

City commissioners will consider approving about $100,000 worth of incentives for a Tenants to Homeowners project that will provide affordable housing to people 55 and older. As we’ve previously reported, Tenants to Homeowners has plans to build the Cedarwood Senior Cottages project at 125 Cedarwood Ave., which is behind the United Way building in south Lawrence. The $2.1 million project is expected to have 14 affordably priced town homes for seniors, along with some other amenities.

But leaders of the project say it needs some help in meeting all the costs related to city-required infrastructure and permit fees. In total, the project is asking for $101,975 worth of city assistance. About $61,000 would come in the form of city rebates of utility “impact fees” and meter installation fees. The rest includes some city assistance with sidewalk construction, storm water work, and fire hydrant installation.

City staff members are recommending approval of the incentive request. Money for the incentives would come from the city’s Community Development Block Grant funds, utility funds, and the city’s storm water fund.

Commissioners meet at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.