Christmas is upon us and I hope you are able to celebrate with those that you love and are able to share your treasure with those less fortunate. Stop and give thanks for all that we have and pass on good cheer to the next person.
The Kansas Department of Labor released the 2008 Kansas Job Vacancy Survey this past week. This survey is designed to find what jobs are open and available to workers, where these jobs are located, what they pay and what education they require.
Kansas’ labor market is in high demand for workers. The 2008 survey reported an estimated 46,584 job vacancies in Kansas during the second quarter of 2008. During the same time, Kansas averaged 61,981 unemployed workers, resulting in an average of 1.3 unemployed people for every job vacancy.
The statewide job vacancy rate was 3.5 percent, meaning there were 3.5 vacancies for every 100 filled positions. Southeast Kansas had the lowest job vacancy rate of 3.1 percent while Sedgwick and surrounding counties had the highest rate of 4.1 percent.
The 2008 statistics reinforced the theory that earnings increase with the level of education. Vacant jobs that require a bachelor’s degree generally paid more than twice as those that required only a high school diploma or GED.
Vacancies requiring an advanced degree paid nearly two and one half times as much. Registered nurses were consistently among the top ten occupations that require a bachelor’s degree and had more job vacancies than any other occupation. Source: www.dol.ks.gov/LMIS/jobvacancy/jvs2008.
The Department of Health and Environment released their Annual Summary of Vital Statistics for 2007. Our state had 41,951 live births with 21,419 male and 20,529 female. The age of the mothers is interesting with 47 babies born to those under 15 years old, the 15-17 age group had 1,273 while the 18-19 year old delivered 2,990 babies into this world. Interestingly, 50 babies were welcomed by women 45 years old or older.
The age group of the fathers shows 340 under the age of 18, 6 new daddies were in the 10-14 age group. The 25-29 age group was the largest with 11,238. There were 835 live births reported in Butler County in 2007.
There were also 71 abortions provided to women that listed Butler County as their place of residence. 21 abortions were provided to women 15-19, while 18 were provided to those 20-24. Statewide there were 5,162 abortions provided to those from outside our state, while 5,679 residents received their abortion here.
In 2007 18,910 marriages occurred in Kansas and increase of 0.4 percent from 2006. Sedgwick County recorded 3,558 marriages. More weddings were performed in June (13.1 percent) followed by July and September as the second and third most popular months.
In contrast 9,347 marriage dissolutions (9,068 divorces and 279 annulments) occurred in Kansas, an increase of 2.2 percent over 2006, which had 9,145 dissolutions. Sedgwick County again led the state with 2,595 dissolutions. There were 8,654 minor children affected as a result of marriage dissolutions in 2007. At least one minor child was reported to be involved in half of the failed marriages.
This past week interim committees finished up their busy schedule. The Special Education Funding Task Force, Special Committee on New Comprehensive Transportation Plan, Criminal Code Recodification Commission, Joint Committee on Special Claims against the State, and the Kansas Electric Transmission Authority. These are just a sampling of the interim committees that have met in the past 3 months.
The Governor has asked for $400 Million in internal borrowing, a “certificate of indebtedness” to pay December’s bills and help get us through to after January. The January to April time frame is traditionally the lowest months for cash income to the State of Kansas. The State Finance Council approved borrowing $250 million. This money must be paid back by June 30th, the end of FY 09.
The Governor has suggested the individual agencies to look at 3% reductions. She has the statutory authority to make the cuts and that could save us about $180 million give or take a little. That could ease the pain by asking the agencies to decide what they can eliminate or delay, now apparently the legislature will make those decisions.
I had a great meeting with some of the USD 490 staff, Superintendent Givens and several Board Members this past week. We had a dialog about the upcoming budget and I felt it was time well spent. We discussed several options and I feel this group has a handle on what we need to do collectively to get past this shortfall of cash. I will make time to visit with any other board or organizations to discuss this or other topics of your choosing.
I have scheduled several groups to meet with before we head back to session on January 12th, 2009. If you need a speaker or want to visit individually give me a call. I consider it an honor and privilege to be your representative in Topeka and I want to know what you think.
My contact information remains, my home address is 1115 Rim Rock Road, 321-2087, johng@carlisleinc.net, grange@house.state.ks.us, www.johngrange.net. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year thanks, John.
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