TOPEKA, Kan. (KAKE) - Kansas has jobs to spare. That's just one of the things the Kansas Legislative Research Department told lawmakers Monday morning.

We've heard a lot over the last year or so about the troubles businesses are having finding and holding onto workers. The state's research department says the problem isn't lazy Kansans, but rather not enough Kansans.

Right now, the department head says, our state has two jobs available for every currently unemployed Kansan.

In fact, while Kansas lost 158,400 jobs to the pandemic, we've since brought in 177,300 jobs.  That means more people are working in Kansas now than before the pandemic.

And, labor participation, the number of Kansans who can work and are either working or trying to work, is holding steady between 66% and 67%.

The only down slide in the report is the average hourly wage.  That fell about 70 cents from $29.82/hour in February 2022 to $29.12/hour in February of this year, when adjusted for inflation.