Though by a very narrow margin, March numbers show Laurel County’s unemployment rate went down from the month before — the first time that has happened since August 2008. The statistics also reveal 71 percent of counties in Kentucky have higher unemployment rates than Laurel County does.
Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet numbers show 10.4 percent of Laurel County residents are out of work. Last month, 10.5 percent were.
Labor force statistics are measured by unemployed Kentuckians who are actively looking for work. They do not include unemployed Kentuckians who have not looked for employment within the past four weeks.
Charlie Pennington, the executive director of the Industrial Authority, wasn’t surprised to hear the good news.
“The economy in Laurel County, in my view, the jobs are more diversified,” he said. “A majority of the jobs are food-related industries which, in my opinion, hasn’t been affected as much as the automotive industry has ... The type of jobs that are here have, so far, been pretty stable.”
Menifee County recorded the highest unemployment in the state, with 18.1 percent of people out of work. It was followed by Bath County (17.7 percent), Jackson County (16.8 percent) and Magoffin county (16.5 percent).
Fayette County has the lowest jobless rate in the state at 7.4 percent. Woodford County has the second lowest at 7.7 percent, with McCracken and Oldham counties tying for third place with 8.1 percent each.
But for Harlan County, all of the counties that surround Laurel County have higher rates, some of them markedly so.
All 120 counties reported higher unemployment rates in March from the same time last year.
Unemployment statistics are based on estimates assembled through surveying households. They do not involve actually counting the number of people who are working.
Staff writer Tara Kaprowy can be reached by e-mail at tkaprowy@sentinel-echo.com.
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May 3, 2009
County jobless rate down slightly
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