The Kansas Department of Labor released the unemployment numbers for May in Kansas and individual cities and counties Friday morning.

The Hutchinson rate rose ever so slightly in May going to 6.5%, up slightly from April when the rate was at 6.3%. That means that 1-thousand, 355 residents were looking for work, during that month, while 19-thousand, 643 were employed out of workforce of nearly 21-thousand.

In Reno County, the rate also rose slight, now standing at 5.3%, up from 5.1% in April, but still well below the same period last year, when the rate was at 6%. 1-thousand, 825 residents in the county are listed as being out of work, but most of those are in the city of Hutchinson.

Most of the surrounding counties also saw a slight increase in May, or basically stayed the same. There were no major jumps either way in the area.

The May report statewide showed a 1 percent increase in private sector jobs since May 2011 and unemployment rates for May were the same as April 2012.

Kansas gained 10,800 private sector jobs since May 2011, or 1 percent. Since April 2012, Kansas gained 5,200 private sector jobs, or 0.5 percent. These monthly increases were mostly because of seasonal changes.

“The good news in this labor report is that we are markedly improved relative to last year,” Karin Brownlee, Kansas Secretary of Labor, said. “Looking from month to month, we seem to be singing ‘second verse, same as the first’ as the changes are very minor.”

The unemployment rate in Kansas was 5.8 percent in May, the same as April and down from 6.5 percent in May 2011. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.1 percent, unchanged from April and down from 6.7 percent one year ago.