The Manufacturing Sectors Adding Jobs in Kansas

According to MNI, the state of Kansas added manufacturing jobs over the past year, helped by strong gains across multiple sectors.

Kansas is currently home to 4,423 manufacturers employing 205,534 according to data collected firsthand from Kansas manufacturers by MNI’s data research team. Between February 2021 and February 2022, the state’s manufacturing workforce grew by 1.3%, adding 2,767 jobs.

Over the past year, employment in search and navigation equipment rose 62%, following the expansion of Garmin International’s Olathe headquarters. Garmin designs and develops GPS-enabled products and other types of navigation products for a wide range of industries. The expansion resulted in a 24% increase in manufacturing employment for the city of Olathe.

Other Kansas cities that gained manufacturing jobs included Overland Park, which added 12%, and Topeka, up 2.8%. 

Job gains were seen across multiple sub-sectors, including adhesives & sealants, up 73%; lumber, plywood, millwork & wood panels, up 57%; and textile products, up 56%.

Food processing accounts for the largest share of Kansas’ manufacturing workforce, employing 36,954. Second-ranked transportation equipment ranks second with 34,262 workers, while industrial machinery ranks third with 26,681.

MNI’s city data reveals Wichita ranks as the state’s largest by number of manufacturing jobs, home to 575 companies employing 48,422 workers. This is followed by Kansas City with 12,626 workers and 182 companies.

For the latest facts and statistics on Kansas’s manufacturing sector, learn more in our post Top 10 Manufacturing Companies in Kansas.

About this Data: Established in 1912, MNI is the nation’s oldest and largest compiler of data on U.S. manufacturers. In addition to collecting job numbers firsthand from the nation’s nearly 400,000 U.S. manufacturers, MNI’s research team collect a wide range of data points on each company. These detailed business profiles of 460,000 U.S. industrial companies are available for sales, marketing, and prospecting purposes through the industrial database IndustrySelect, or for purchasing, sourcing and advertising through the industrial marketplace IndustryNet.

Looking to contact Kansas manufacturing companies? Learn more about our Kansas data for sales, marketing, business development and research here.