The Kentucky Center for Statistics reports the Commonwealth’s annual unemployment rate remained steady from 2018 to 2019 at 4.3%.
University of Kentucky’s Center for Business and Economic Research Interim Director Mike Clark said Kentucky’s employment has grown for ten straight years. But, Clark added more people have also come off the sidelines looking for work. “Now the situation we have is it’s kind of balanced. So, we’re still seeing employment growth, but we’re also seeing people who are attracted by the higher prospects of working and the higher wages. People are coming back into the labor force,” said Clark.
Clark admited the attention given to the coronavirus currently could have an economic impact in Kentucky, but it’s likely to be short-lived. “Those generally tend to be fairly temporary and then once we’ve kind of moved past that peak, things start to return to normal a little bit. There’s a lot of uncertainty of course when a virus like this starts to emerge about how that virus is going to behave,” noted Clark.
Clark said the revised employment estimates suggest the rate of employment growth has been slowing over the last three years.
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