After a lockdown gap of three months, the state of Missouri has finally opened on 15th June to normal economic activity. As a result, the offices and establishments in the city of Kansas have bounced back to normal. Closing of all economic activities during the Covid 19 phase has created a tremendous hardship on the economy and its people at large. Usually many people were interested in doing betting during the lockdown period. But since there were no sports activities and all tournaments were cancelled, sports betting lovers could not bet on live games.
Gov. Mike Parson is of the opinion that once people will start coming out of their homes, the infrastructure projects will be back to action and the employment scenario of the state may have an improved look. He said that people must take inspiration from the company named Burns and McDonnell which continued to work on site in different important infrastructural projects even when people took shelter at home and prefer not to go outdoors.
The Governor also opined that the entire state of Missouri has seen a very high rate of unemployment during the last 3 months, which also affected the city of Kansas. But he is hopeful that once the new infrastructure projects like electrical grids and highways and water systems are back into action the employment scenario of Kansas City will also improve a lot.
He urged the people to get back to work and do not worry thinking about what has happened in the last 3 months. Just think that it was a small bump on the road and as the State will focus on workforce development and infrastructure the economy can bounce back to where it was. He asked the people to wait for few months as things not improve overnight, but there is a chance of reaching the position as it was a few months back.
Stating a word of caution, he further stated that the corona virus will be there and the people residing at the city of Kansas have the common sense to protect themselves from the virus. Even if the attack of the virus increases, the Government will not shut down the economy completely as it was done during the past 90 days. If the second wave of infections comes, the city administration is ready to overcome that crisis as they are now ready with the necessary infrastructure.
Unemployment scenario in the Wichita area was a bit high as the aerospace industry was struggling even before the Covid 19 attack started in the month of March. It is surprising to know that the unemployment rate is 18.7% in the Wichita region and this figure is two times higher than what it was in 2008 when the Great Recession took place. The main reason for the unemployment in aerospace industry here is the crisis of 737 MAX. So the situation is quite tough for companies like Spirit and Boeing and unemployment numbers are increasing after the Covid-19 crisis.
According to statistics available with department of labor, unemployment rate in Kansas in the month of April was 11.2%, an increase from 2.8% from the month of March when the order for lockdown was given and implemented. Huge effect of the corona virus was felt in the labor market and the effect on the economy was enormous. As per further statistics available, jobs in the non farming sector went down by 130,400 during the last 3 months. Jobs in the private sector in the Kansas City went down by 121,600 and the number of government jobs by 8,800. The biggest effect was seen in the hospitality and leisure sector where the number of jobs saw a sharp decrease of 50,200 in the last three months.
Experts say that this unemployment scenario is not the result of Covid-19 virus alone. The economy was going slow for the past few years. It can be seen from the statistics available with the Government that jobs in the non farming sector in the Kansas City went down by 133,200 and out of them, 125,500 have been found to be jobs in the private sector and 7,700 are jobs from the Government sector.
The overall economic scene was not bright across the entire country as the national unemployment rate went up to around 15% during the month of April. In addition to that, the three months lockdown to control the pandemic added more negative scenario to the economy. The city of Kansas was not an exception to that.
Even the Chairman of Federal Reserve Jerome Powell stated that they are also quite worried about the recession and a steep rise in unemployment rate. He said if these issues are not addressed at the proper time, then it may give rise to lot of economic inequalities. He also assured that Federal Reserve will use all sorts of financial tools to resolve the issue and see that they are implemented to bring to normal the tight labor market. He noted that the US Congress should not withdraw the rescue efforts initiated by them quite soon as that will greatly affect the economic recovery to a great extent. If that is allowed to happen, the households which are economically in a real bad shape is bound to suffer. The Chairman Mr Powell made this comments while delivering his lecture on the current recession at the US Congress.
Among the measures, keeping the interest rate to almost zero by Federal Reserve is expected to give a lot of breathing time to the businesses and different household loans which are ordinary consumers are paying back amid this Covid 19 crisis.
Powell also said that their main aim was to go back to the unemployment rate of only 3.5% before end of last year. To stop the spread of the virus, when the entire economy was shut down, the unemployment rate went up to around 15% in the month of May 2020. According to an estimate more than 25 million people have lost their jobs during this crisis.
