Kentucky’s unemployment rate falls to its lowest level since 2000

Following a ninth straight year of employment gains in Kentucky, the commonwealth has its lowest unemployment rate since 2000, according to the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet.

The annual unemployment rate dropped from 4.9 percent in 2017 to 4.3 percent in 2018, the cabinet announced Monday morning. The number is its lowest since 2000 when the rate was 4.2 percent.

There were 89,310 unemployed Kentuckians in 2018, down 11,415 from the prior year.

The statistics are based on estimates from the Current Population Survey of households from the Census Bureau, according to the cabinet. The population survey is typically a monthly sample survey of 60,000 eligible households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, according the U.S. Department of Labor.

Kentucky was one of 44 states in the country to experience a decline in unemployment, the report states. The U.S. annual unemployment rate dropped to 3.9 percent in 2018 from 4.4 percent in 2017.

The largest growths in Kentucky came in the health and social services, educational and manufacturing sectors. Kentucky’s largest employment sector — trade, transportation and utilities — had a 1.1 percent increase in jobs in 2018 and 23,200 jobs have been added to the sector in the last 10 years.

“Trade, transportation, and utilities has been a major economic driver in Kentucky for at least the past five years,” said University of Kentucky’s Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) Associate Director Mike Clark. “Most of this growth has occurred in transportation and warehousing.”

Employment in mining and logging, financial activities and government all declined.

This story was originally published March 4, 2019 at 11:46 AM.