March 14, 2013

Kentucky Jobless Rates Improve in 83 Counties

In January the jobless rate in Kentucky is reported to have continued to improve, with 83 counties have unemployment rates drop, according to figures released by the Office of Employment and Training Thursday.

The lowest unemployment rate by far was in Woodford County, which came in at 5.9 percent. Next was
Fayette County, 6.5 percent; Oldham County, 6.6 percent; Shelby County, 6.7 percent; Madison County, 7 percent; Franklin County, 7.1 percent; Daviess and Scott counties, 7.2 percent each; and Anderson, Hancock and Union counties, 7.3 percent each.

The worst unemployment rate was in Magoffin County — 18.8 percent. Next was Letcher County, 16.9 percent; Leslie County, 16.4 percent; Harlan County, 15.8 percent; Fulton County, 15.2 percent; Jackson and Knott counties, 15.1 percent each; Bell County 14.7 percent; Menifee County, 14.6 percent; and McCreary County, 14.4 percent.

Overall, unemployment in the commonwealth dropped from 9.5 percent in 2011 to 8.2 percent in 2012.

As with all unemployment statistics, it's hard to gauge the actual economic performance because of people no longer searching for work, which could skew the statistics to look better than they are.

As for actual job creation, an estimated 28,800 jobs were added to the economy last year. The question of course is the quality of those jobs and whether they were the result of employees seeking second jobs because of the cutbacks related to Obamacare.

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