Downtown Wichita jobs rise

The number of jobs in downtown Wichita rose sharply in 2017.

New data from United States Census Bureau shows the number of workers in downtown Wichita rose sharply in 2017, while the number of business firms fell slightly.

From 2016 to 2017, the number of workers in zip code 67202 rose from 13,618 to 14,588, an increase of 970 jobs, or 7.1 percent. (Zip code 67202 is greater downtown Wichita, from the Arkansas River east to Washington, and Kellogg north to Central, roughly.)

The number of business firms fell from 810 to 802.

The annual payroll fell from $666,804,000 to $664,564,000, which is 0.3 percent.

Since 2007, the number of jobs has declined by 9.3 percent, the number of business firms has declined by 9.5 percent, and annual payroll has declined by 4.2 percent.

The significant increase in jobs without a corresponding rise in the count of business firms is likely due to the rapid expansion of two companies, King of Freight and SNT Media. The latter company ceased operations in 2018.

An interactive visualization of this data for all zip codes is available at Visualization: Zip code business patterns.