The Kansas/Missouri Economic Border War, In A Graph
Via the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, who does it look like has been winning the battle lately?
Stay above the line and you gained jobs; drop below the line and you’ve lost them. And to be clear, the Kansas City, Kan./Kansas City, Mo., designations here are references to the Metropolitan Statistical Areas that compose the Kansas City metropolitan area; indeed, the data used here is appropriately broad and provides a fuller picture of Kansas City’s regional economic picture by including other large Kansas and Missouri cities along and around the border — from Overland Park to Platte City and beyond.
In the past, we’ve talked about how jobs have moved, or simply disappeared, from Kansas City’s city center in the past decade. These BLS figures provide further meat to those bones, showing that when it comes to job creation and growth, the advantage right now appears to be very much in Kansas’ favor. The question is, how long will Missouri let that undesirable status quo remain?
