TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Labor released the latest unemployment numbers for September early Friday morning.

The numbers show the unemployment rate for Hutchinson at 7.2%, down from August when the rate was at 7.8%, but slightly above where we were in September of 2010 at 7.1. The numbers show 1,549 residents of the city are without work, while 19,894 were employed.

The Reno County unemployment rate is at 5.9%, also down from August when the county was at 6.4%, but again, slightly higher then September of 2010, when the rate at 6.1. In the county, there were 2-thousand, 86-residents without work, but again, most of those looking for jobs are in the city of Hutchinson.

Surrounding county numbers show McPherson with a rate of 4.8%, down from 5.4% in August. The Harvey County unemployment rate also dropped from 7.5% in August to 6.3% in September. Kingman’s number dropped from 5.8 in August to 5.4 last month. Pratt County went from 5.1 to the current 4.6%, while Rice County dropped to 5%, down from 5.6% in August. Stafford County with its rural population dropped from 5.8% to 5.1, while the most populous county in our area, Sedgwick County saw their rate drop from 8.3% in August to 8.1 in September.

The state unemployment rate for September was 6.6 percent, down from 6.9 percent in August and 6.9 percent in September 2010. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.7 percent, unchanged from August and down from 7.0 percent in September 2010.