Kentucky’s unemployment rate fell in September to five percent, down from 5.2 percent from the month before.
According to the Office of Employment and Training, the state’s jobless rate hasn’t been that low in 14 years. State Economist Manoj Shanker says Kentucky has outperformed the U.S. average in 13 of the last 14 months.
"The reason the national average is a little bit higher than ours is because whatever is happening abroad, in Europe and China, is hitting markets in California, New York, and the rest of the east coast," Shanker told WKU Public Radio. "We've been immune to it, so we've been growing quite steadily since actually April of last year."
Despite the drop in jobless numbers, Kentucky faces the challenge of a shrinking workforce. The state has a higher number of retirement-age individuals than the U.S. average. Last month, Kentucky’s civilian labor force declined by more than 11,000 people compared to the previous month.
