Douglas County, KS jobs, unemployment and layoffs

Douglas County’s unemployment rate is 3.6%. No layoff notices here in the last 12 months. 2 open professional jobs are in its cities.

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Douglas County economy

3.6%
unemployment, Sep 2026
3.3% the month before
70,558
in the labor force
Source: BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
119,547
people in Douglas County
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
$68,756
median household income
Source: Census ACS
48%
of workers in white-collar occupations
Management, business, financial and professional; Census ACS

Where Douglas County ranks

Where Douglas County placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.

November 2026

#24Counties with the highest share of white-collar workers in the Midwest48% · of 100

Douglas County outlook: Steady

Built from public Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census figures. It describes the area, not any one employer in it.

Private-sector jobs up 4.6% from 2022 to 2025
Population up 1.8% from 2020 to 2025
Unemployment 3.6%, up 0.3 points from a year ago
Sectors adding the most jobs: health care (+728 jobs), construction (+464 jobs)

Learn and get funded in Douglas County

Which AI skills each kind of job asks for, with the pay premium.
Your local workforce board and American Job Centers: training vouchers and re-employment help.
Grants and funding for job seekers, ranked for your state and situation.
Unemployment benefits by state, if you are between jobs.

Douglas County layoffs

No layoff notices naming Douglas County in the last 12 months are on file. The WARN Act covers employers with 100 or more workers, so smaller layoffs are not in it.

All layoff notices in the state

Employers hiring most in Douglas County

Employers with the most open professional roles in this county’s cities. The county is taken from each job’s city, so roles with no city are not counted.

Liberty Personnel Services1 open role
McFarlane Aviation Products1 open role

Colleges in Douglas County

Colleges in Douglas County
College	City	Type	Students
University of Kansas	Lawrence	Public 4-year	20,000+
Baker University	Baldwin City	Private non-profit 4-year	1,000–4,999
Haskell Indian Nations University	Lawrence	Public 4-year	Under 1,000

Workforce development and job centers

The public workforce board and American Job Centers serving Douglas County. They offer free help with job search, training and filing for benefits.

Laid off in Kansas? How to file for unemployment in Kansas (steps, weekly amount and the appeal deadline).

Kansas Local Area I Workforce Development Board
Atchison, Barber, Barton, Brown, Chase, Cheyenne, Clark, Clay, Cloud, Comanche, Decatur, Dickinson, Doniphan, Douglas, Edwards, Ellis, Ellsworth, Finney, Ford, Franklin, Geary, Gove, Graham, Grant, Gray, Greeley, Hamilton, Harvey, Haskell, Hodgeman, Jackson, Jefferson, Jewell, Kearny, Kiowa, Lane, Lincoln, Logan, Marion, Marshall, McPherson, Meade, Mitchell, Morris, Morton, Nemaha, Ness, Norton, Osage, Osborne, Ottawa, Pawnee, Phillips, Pottawatomie, Pratt, Rawlins, Reno, Republic, Rice, Riley, Rooks, Rush, Russell, Saline, Scott, Seward, Shawnee, Sheridan, Sherman, Smith, Stafford, Stanton, Stevens, Thomas, Trego, Wabaunsee, Wallace, Washington, Wichita

Lawrence Workforce Center
Lawrence · Comprehensive · 785-840-9675
8:00 a.m - 5:00 p.m.

Cities in Douglas County

Baldwin City2 jobs

Other Kansas counties

All of Kansas

Laid off or looking for work in Douglas County?

See what to do first and the jobs open near you.

See your options after a layoff

Sources: Census Bureau and BLS (county unemployment is not seasonally adjusted); layoff notices from Kansas’s published record; job counts from our live job board; IPEDS for colleges; CareerOneStop for workforce boards and job centers. Kansas unemployment benefits and severance rules.

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