Madison County was the second-fastest growing in Kentucky from 2020 to 2025, adding 9,000 people.
Yet unemployment data released Thursday by the Education and Labor Cabinet show Madison has a relatively high unemployment rate – 5.3% – among its Central Kentucky peers.
Mike Clark, a University of Kentucky economist, said the county’s growth could be attracting people who are looking for a job.
“They come into the area until they find a job,” he said. “They would be considered as unemployed, so that could be causing the unemployment rate to increase in a county that actually is doing well.”
According to state data, Woodford County has the state’s lowest unemployment at 3.7%, while Martin County has the highest at 9.8%.
Clark also noted more people could be entering the labor force in Madison County because of the opportunities available as growth continues.
“That could actually mean that people are coming to the area because they think there's a better chance of finding a job,” he said, “or people are coming back into the labor force because they think there's a good chance of finding a job.”
Clark said generally speaking, the unemployment rate is an indicator of the economic health of an area.
Last month, Central and Northern Kentucky counties had the lowest unemployment levels in the state, while eastern counties had the highest.
A better measure of Madison’s economic health, Clark said, is the total number of people who are employed. That number, he noted, increased slightly from May 2025 to May 2026.
“So employment seems to be holding up in Madison County,” he said.
U.S. unemployment last month stood at 4.1%. In Kentucky, it was 4.8% statewide.
Warren County led Kentucky in population growth in the past five years, adding 15,000 people.
That county’s population increased 11% from 2020 to 2025, while Madison’s increased nearly 10%, according to census data.
Warren County’s unemployment last month stood at 4.3%, a full point lower than Madison’s.
Eastern Kentucky’s traditional coal-producing counties saw the biggest drops in population in the past five years, led by Pike County, which shed nearly 4,000 residents. Harlan and Perry counties lost about 2,000 each.
As census numbers showed earlier this year, Kentucky gained 100,577 residents from 2020 to 2025, a 2% increase.
Without domestic and international migration, Kentucky’s population would have declined by 18,000 during that time because deaths exceeded births.
