Unemployment rate improves in county

Fewer people were unemployed last month in Franklin County compared to the previous month, bucking a trend across the area — and even across the nation.

Twenty-seven states saw their unemployment rates increase in August, and 14 states and Washington, D.C., reported unemployment rates of 10 percent or above.

The news was slightly better in Kansas, which reported unemployment of 7.1 percent in August, down from 7.8 percent in July.

Franklin County saw its unemployment drop slightly, too. The unemployment rate in August was 8.1 percent, down from July’s rate of 8.4.

That’s still up significantly from the previous August, which saw 5-percent unemployment.

Other counties in the area — Anderson, Coffey and Miami — reported slightly higher unemployment. Osage County reported a slight decrease, while Johnson County saw a decrease of nearly a full percentage point, down to 6.4 percent from 7.1.

Nationwide, 42 states lost jobs last month, up from 29 in July, with the biggest net payroll cuts coming in Texas, Michigan, Georgia and Ohio.

The report shows jobs remain scarce even as most analysts believe the economy is pulling out of the worst recession since the 1930s. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said earlier this week that the recovery isn’t likely to be rapid enough to reduce unemployment for some time.

The jobless rate nationwide is expected to peak above 10 percent next year, from its current 9.7 percent.

‘‘You are seeing the pace of job losses slow a little bit,’’ Mike Lynch, a regional economist at IHS Global Insight, said. But states ‘‘are not out of the woods yet.’’

The United States lost 216,000 jobs in August, the department said earlier this month, down from 276,000 in July. Employers have eliminated 6.9 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007.