photo by: Courtesy: Kansas Department of Labor

Another 1,200 Douglas County residents filed for unemployment insurance last week, as nearly 60,000 Kansans received unemployment payments of some kind.

In its weekly report, the Kansas Department of Labor says 30,786 people last week made initial claims for unemployment benefits. Those are still historically high numbers, but they represent a big decline from initial unemployment claims during the last two weeks, when more than 50,000 layoffs occurred each week.

Douglas County’s trend was similar. The total of 1,259 people who made initial claims for unemployment insurance last week was down from the previous two weeks, when more than 2,100 county residents made initial claims each week.

However, it is unclear whether the state’s latest numbers represent a true slowdown in the number of layoffs or whether they are merely a sign of the massive difficulty individuals have had in making unemployment claims. The state’s unemployment benefits website was down for parts of last week, making it difficult for people to get accepted into the unemployment program.

The state’s numbers make it clear that one industry hasn’t seen a slowdown in layoffs. The manufacturing industry was the hardest hit last week, as the pace of layoffs in that industry quickened over the last week. The manufacturing industry produced 8,551 unemployment claims for the week ending April 11. That’s up from about 6,800 layoffs for the week ending April 4.

The state hasn’t provided a breakdown of the types of job losses in Douglas County, but here is a look at which industries statewide are seeing the greatest number of job losses. The first figure is the number of claims filed for the week ending April 11. The second figure is the number of people who filed since mid-March when the COVID-19 virus began to disrupt the state’s economy.

• Manufacturing: 8,551 (34,419)

• Accommodation and food service: 3,614 (27,142)

• Health care and social assistance: 3,245 (17,245)

• Retail trade: 3,746 (15,987)

• Other services: 1,791 (11,291)

• Administrative and waste services: 1,609 (7,370)

• Construction: 1,083 (5,887)

• Arts, entertainment, recreation: 905 (5,450)

The labor department also reported that 58,818 people received unemployment payments last week. That was an increase of about 21,000 people from the previous week. The state made $22.9 million in payments for the week, for an average of $354 per person. At last report, the state still had not begun sending the $600-per-week federal payment that Congress has authorized. The department previously has said it is working to get its systems in place to begin making the added weekly payment. A date for the payments to begin, however, has not yet been announced.

In Douglas County, 2,435 people received unemployment payments last week. The county continues to have the fifth-highest number of people on unemployment in the state. Sedgwick County, home to a hammered aviation industry, by far has the largest number of people on unemployment. Just over 16,000 people received payments there last week.

See the map above for a look at the totals for all Kansas counties.