photo by: AdobeStock

A business district in Overland Park is pictured in this 2023 stock photo. Johnson County ranked high for the number of jobs it has compared to its overall population.

With much uncertainty about the future of federal jobs, LinkedIn might be the busiest website in America these days. (Well, maybe tied with ChatGPT and the query of “how to tell Elon Musk …”)

The point is, job searches may become a much more prevalent activity in the near future, and with that in mind, I stumbled across some numbers that provide an interesting look at how many jobs are located in each Kansas county compared to the county’s overall population.

Douglas County ranks below-average in the measurement, but a couple of our neighbors are among the best in the state, while another neighbor ranks dead last.

For every 100 Douglas County residents, there are nearly 42 jobs located within Douglas County. Statewide, the number is about 49 jobs for every 100 residents.

I actually came up with these numbers when I was writing earlier this week about the number of federal jobs that are located in Douglas County. For that project, I dove into the latest numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for every county in Kansas. I had job totals for every Kansas county as part of that project, and getting population totals for each Kansas county was easy, so I compared the two.

While it wasn’t particularly relevant to the article I was writing about federal jobs in Douglas County, the number could be very relevant in other regards. For one, future job seekers may want to know which counties have a high number of jobs compared to their local population. Those might be areas where job hunting would be more fertile.

Additionally, any look at how Douglas County stacks up in a job category has some value because there’s always lots of talk from local leaders about the need for job creation in a healthy economy.

Before we dive into the numbers deeper, here’s an important reminder about them — the population totals include every man, woman, child, and retiree who resides in a county. Thus, you should not interpret Douglas County’s number of 42 jobs for every 100 residents as meaning that there are 58 people who want a job but can’t get one in Douglas County. That’s certainly not the case.

Rather, the numbers are a gauge of job creation activities in a county, and they provide some insight into the extent that a county’s economy is powered by jobs versus residents who simply live there. To fully appreciate that last point, it is important to remember that the jobs in this report are jobs located in the county and filled either by a resident or non-resident of the county. For example, a Lawrence factory job filled by an Ottawa resident gets counted as a Douglas County job. A Lawrence resident who works in a Kansas City factory does not get counted as a Douglas County job.

Enough with the explaining, though. Let’s look at the numbers. As I mentioned earlier, a couple of nearby counties were among the state’s most job-heavy counties. Johnson County had 60 jobs for every 100 residents, and Wyandotte County had 57. Johnson County’s rate ranked second among the state’s 105 counties, and Wyandotte came in at No. 4.

Those are two of the state’s most urban counties, but being an urban county didn’t guarantee that you were among the most job-heavy counties. Here’s a look at the numbers for the state’s urban counties, and their rank among the state’s 105 counties:

• Johnson: 60 jobs per 100 residents, No. 2

• Wyandotte: 57.2 jobs per 100 residents, No. 4

• Shawnee: 55.6 jobs per 100 residents, No. 7

• Sedgwick: 50.3 jobs per 100 residents, No. 19

• Riley: 42.5 jobs per 100 residents, No. 42

• Douglas: 41.9 jobs per 100 residents, No. 48

Every urban county was among the top half of the state’s counties, and only the two college communities of Douglas and Riley counties had numbers that ranked below the statewide average of 48.8 jobs per 100 residents.

That college impact might be worth examining. Some college students have no interest in having a job, and thus they may skew the numbers. I’m not sure that is truly the case, though. Assume, for a brief moment, KU didn’t exist. If you eliminated all 9,900 jobs on KU’s Lawrence campus and eliminated all 26,800 students from Douglas County’s population, the jobs per 100 residents changes from 42 to 43. That’s a very back-of-the-napkin calculation, but it suggests that the uniqueness of our college-heavy population isn’t the reason behind our below-average job number.

You could argue that Douglas County’s job heaviness actually would decline significantly, if not for the university. There are a ton of job-producing businesses that serve students in our economy. Absent the university, Douglas County easily could be a commuter-heavy economy. You don’t have to look far to see those.

As I mentioned earlier, one of our neighbors ranks dead last in the number of jobs per 100 residents. What I didn’t mention is that one of our other neighbors ranks second to last.

Osage County took that last spot with 19.7 jobs per 100 residents. Jefferson County took the second to last spot with 21.4 jobs per 100 residents. In Osage County, it is easy to commute to Topeka for work. In Jefferson County, it is easy to commute to Topeka, Lawrence and elsewhere.

Those numbers have real meaning to me. I’m a fifth-generation Osage County native — on both sides of my family tree — but a lack of economic opportunity caused me to leave, and my kids almost certainly won’t be the sixth generation to call that great place home.

The numbers don’t play out that way for all small counties, though. Both the top and bottom of this list has a mix between large and small counties, plus those near to urban centers and those isolated from such metros. I can’t ascertain what the common thread is between communities that rank high in this job metric or that rank low in it. Maybe you can. Here’s a look at the 10 highest counties in the state:

• Hamilton: 63.3 jobs per 100 residents

• Johnson: 60

• Nemaha: 58

• Wyandotte: 57.2

• Saline: 56.9

• Gray: 55.9

• Shawnee: 55.6

• Mitchell: 55.3

• McPherson: 55

• Finney: 54.9

Here are the 10 lowest:

• Osage: 19.7

• Jefferson: 21.4

• Linn: 22.2

• Woodson: 22.4

• Ottawa: 22.5

• Chautauqua: 23.8

• Elk: 25.7

• Miami: 25.9

• Jewell: 26.3

• Leavenworth: 26.4