The amount of people in Kentucky’s labor force has declined by 11,326 people over the first two months of 2026, according to reports from the Kentucky Center for Statistics.
The center reports Kentucky’s labor force was 2,108,665 in February, down 5,874 individuals from January.
A previous report said the state’s labor force was 2,114,515 in January, down 5,476 from December.
Statewide unemployment has slightly decreased during that time, from 4.4% in December to 4.2% in February. The center said that’s because Kentucky’s labor force as a whole is also shrinking, meaning fewer people are actively looking for work.
Mike Clark, director of the University of Kentucky’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said the decline could be a symptom of a tougher job market.
“They're available to work, and would take a job if offered, but they may view the economic situation such that it's hard to find a job right now, or employers are not hiring, so they are choosing not to work, and basically they are sitting out of the labor force,” he said.
Clark pointed to a decline in Kentucky’s manufacturing sector, which lost 600 jobs from January to February and 2,100 since last February.
“As we came out of the pandemic, we actually did really well in terms of manufacturing jobs in Kentucky,” Clark said. “We saw Kentucky really growing manufacturing jobs faster than the rest of the nation, so that really helped in terms of our recovery, but we really seem to have turned a corner, particularly in terms of durable goods manufacturing.”
By comparison, the health services and education sector is growing, with some caveats. A total of 1,300 jobs were added since January and 4,100 jobs since last February.
“We’re actually seeing some growth nationally, and we're seeing growth in Kentucky as well,” Clark said. “But if you look at over the last couple of years how Kentucky has been growing in that sector relative to the US, while we've been growing, we haven't really been keeping pace with the US growth.”
Clark said slight dips in the labor force are common and those numbers could just be regular, month-to-month fluctuations. However, if that decline continues, it could be indicative of a larger trend.
“One of the things that we always have to watch out for is (if) there's noise in the data,” Clark said. “And so, we get revisions. We often see a month that maybe will change, and one month of change really isn't indicating a trend.”
