As the students return, it is an important time for numbers in Lawrence. Two of the most important: the PIN for the ATM and the phone number to the parents, which becomes particularly important when the first number no longer works. Here’s a look at a few other numbers important to Lawrence’s economy.

• Is there a citywide siesta hour that I haven’t been informed of? If not, something odd seems to be going on in Lawrence’s workforce.

City auditor Michael Eglinski found some interesting information about our workforce as he was putting together a report measuring how Lawrence stacks up financially to other similar communities. What he found is the number of hours we work in a week is less than almost any other community in the nation.

Federal statistics show that private-sector employment grew from 34,900 in 2013 to 36,400 in 2015 in Lawrence. But during that same period, the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show the average hours worked in a week declined by 2.7 hours.

One possible conclusion is that Lawrence was adding jobs, but lots of them were part-time jobs. What’s more striking is that Lawrence seemed to be doing so at a rate greater than almost any other community. Eglinski looked at the April 2016 report from the BLS and found that Lawrence had the lowest average hours worked per week of all 387 metro areas included in the study.

I looked at the more recent July numbers, and they showed much the same thing for Lawrence. Here’s a look at how Lawrence compares with other Kansas communities and a few other college towns in the region:

• Statewide: 33.8 hours per week

• Lawrence: 28.7 hours per week

• Manhattan: 33.7 hours per week

• Topeka: 32 hours per week

• Wichita: 34 hours per week

• Kansas City: 33.8 hours per week

• Ames, Iowa: 32 hours per week

• Iowa City: 33.2 hours per week

• Columbia, Mo.: 31.2 hours per week

As you can see, Lawrence is low even for a college community, where you would expect to see more part-time jobs. Surely this figure is related to Lawrence’s most troubling economic statistic: income levels that lag the region.

It seems like it is an issue worth studying. Let’s do so right after we get done with this four-hour coffee break.

• As we reported last week, Lawrence’s unemployment rate increased a bit during July, but there’s one industry that definitely is not to blame: the hotel and restaurant industry. Eating, drinking and sleeping are becoming bigger business in Lawrence all the time.

The number of jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry increased by 500 — or 7.5 percent — in July 2016 compared with July 2015. The industry was the top-growing industry in the city, according to the most recent report. As for why the growth is occurring, Lawrence has built some new hotels and upgraded others, Rock Chalk Park continues to do well in attracting tournaments, and, perhaps most importantly, the development of south Iowa Street has added several new restaurants that are providing jobs. All those new chicken places may be producing more than just an increase in cholesterol levels.

For whatever reason, the industry also is growing in other Kansas communities. The Wichita area saw growth of 3.1 percent in the leisure and hospitality industry, while the Kansas City metro posted 5.5 percent growth.

While job growth in any category is good news, job gains in the leisure and hospitality industry usually aren’t the type of jobs that help Lawrence with its goal of increasing overall wages. Lawrence, however, did post strong numbers in the professional and business services job category, which involves a variety of higher-paying jobs related to the management of companies. Lawrence added 300 of those jobs in the last year. That was good for a 6 percent increase, which is better than the statewide average of 1.4 percent.

Perhaps the toughest news in the report for Lawrence was that the community continues to struggle with manufacturing jobs and, to some extent, construction jobs. The goods producing category, which includes both construction and manufacturing, is down 5.4 percent. That’s a worse showing than the state as a whole, which saw a decline of 2.7 percent in the category. The Lawrence report doesn’t separate the manufacturing jobs from the construction jobs, but other reports indicate that construction activity is still relatively robust in Lawrence.

Here’s a look at some other Lawrence job numbers (for you data geeks, note these are all nonseasonally adjusted) and how we compare with other metro areas in the state:

• Lawrence: Overall jobs: 49,500, down 1 percent from July 2015. Top gainers: Leisure and hospitality, up 7.5 percent; professional and business services up 6 percent; education and health services, up 1.8 percent. Top losers: goods producing jobs, including manufacturing and construction, down 5.4 percent; trade, transportation and utilities, down 2.5 percent; government jobs, down 2.1 percent.

• Manhattan: Overall jobs: 41,400, down 0.2 percent from July 2015. Top gainers: Service providing jobs, up 0.6 percent. Top losers: goods producing jobs, down 5.4 percent; government jobs, down 0.8 percent.

• Topeka: Overall jobs 110,400, down 1.4 percent from July 2015. Top gainers: Education and health services, up 1.1 percent; Top losers: trade, transportation and utilities, down 5.6 percent; manufacturing down 4.1 percent; government, down 1.5 percent.

• Wichita: Overall jobs 295,100, up 1 percent from July 2015. Top gainers: professional and business services, up 3.6 percent; leisure and hospitality, up 3.1 percent; education and health services, up 2.1 percent; manufacturing, up 0.6 percent. Top losers: mining, logging and construction, down 4.8 percent.

• Kansas City, Kan., metro: Overall jobs: 467,700, up 1 percent from July 2015. Top gainers: Leisure and hospitality, up 5.5 percent; mining, logging and construction, up 4.4 percent; financial activities, up 3.7 percent. Top losers: information, down 8.2 percent ; manufacturing, down 2.3 percent; government down, 1.1 percent.