Four consecutive months of strong employment growth in Kansas City has pushed the market to the brink of pre-pandemic job counts. In the year-ending June overall, employment in Kansas City grew 5.7%, with the creation of 58,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Total employment in Kansas City is now only 900 jobs short (shy by just 0.1%) of the market’s pre-pandemic rate. If Kansas City recovers those 900 jobs in July, it will be only the second among the 50 largest apartment markets in the U.S. to totally recover jobs lost throughout the pandemic downturn in 2020. The first major market to completely recover all lost jobs was Salt Lake City, where the employment count was 2.1% ahead of pre-pandemic levels as of June. One other major apartment market is also nearly recovered. Austin’s job base is 0.5% shy of pre-pandemic norms.
