Kentucky’s credit scores, foreign-driven jobs land it low on independence ranking
Ranked among the least independent states, Kentucky had the highest share of private industry workers employed by foreign-owned firms, according to personal finance website WalletHub.
Out of the 50 states, Kentucky ranked 49th. Only Louisiana scored lower based on the methodology used by the website.
Based on data from the International Trade Administration, WalletHub found that 7.33 percent of private industry workers in Kentucky were employed by foreign-owned firms. That’s 4.1 times higher than Montana, the state with the lowest rate of workers at internationally-owned companies.
The website’s general ranking took into account the financial dependency of a state’s population, the state’s dependence on the government, job markets, and each state’s dependence on international trade and “vice,” according to WalletHub. Each state’s score was determined using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other agencies.
Utah was the highest-ranking state with a score of 66.77, and Louisiana sat at the bottom with a score of 35.95, according to WalletHub. Kentucky was given a score of 36.61.
Kentucky was ranked in the bottom ten of every category, except for job-market dependency. Kentucky ranked 27th based on industry variety, job growth rate, unemployment rate, long-term unemployment rate, underemployment rate and the job creation index, according to WalletHub.
Kentucky also ranked in the bottom ten in several individual data points analyzed by the website, including median credit scores. Kentucky was among the ten states with the most dependence on the federal government and the highest percentage of GDP generated by exports to other countries.
This story was originally published June 29, 2021 at 3:32 PM.
