Quarterly Real GDP in Kansas

Examining changes in GDP and industry contribution in Kansas.

The interactive visualization Quarterly Real Gross Domestic Product by state and industry holds real (inflation-adjusted) GDP data for states and industries. In the visualization, one presentation shows the contribution to a state’s GDP by each industry.

The nearby example taken from the visualization shows data for Kansas and nearby states, as well as the nation. The industry “Government and government enterprises” contributes a large portion of Kansas GDP, more than any of the illustrated states except Oklahoma. This is consistent with Kansas having many government employees as compared to other states. ¹

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We see that the industry “Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting’ is prominent in Kansas compared to the nation, although both Iowa and Nebraska are more reliant on this industry. Kansas is roughly equal to the Plains states in this regard. Note that agriculture is volatile.

In the table, we see the change in GDP calculated in two ways: First, the change from the previous quarter, and then from the same quarter of the previous year. For Kansas, for all industries, we see that for the first quarter of 2019, the change in GDP was -0.27 percent. This is consistent with the revision of that quarter’s GDP growth to -1.1 percent on an annual basis. ² The second-quarter GDP was better, rising by 0.54 percent, again consistent with the 2.2 percent annual rate recently reported.

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For Kansas in 2018, the year-over-year GDP changes for each quarter were 1.09, 2.21, 2.62, and 2.31 percent. For 2019, the quarterly changes have been 0.82 and 0.60 percent, illustrating slower growth in the Kansas economy. This can also be seen in the chart of nonfarm employment changes in Kansas. ³ For the first three months of 2019, the rate of job growth was declining, and then rising in the second quarter.

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