Lowest rate since 2008
FRANKFORT, Ky. (March 9, 2015) — Kentucky’s unemployment rate in 2014 was 6.5 percent, down from 8 percent in 2013. It was the state’s lowest annual jobless rate since 2008 when it was a pre-recession 6.4 percent, according to the Office of Employment and Training, an agency of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet.
The number of employed Kentuckians in 2014 was 1,875,146, down from 1,892,108 in 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The estimated number of unemployed Kentuckians for 2014 was 130,106, down 35,156 from 2013.
The U.S. annual unemployment rate fell to 6.2 percent in 2014 from 7.4 percent in 2013. Annual unemployment rates declined in all states 50 states in 2014 compared to 2013. The lowest rates were in North Dakota, 2.8 percent, and Nebraska, 3.3 percent. Mississippi, Nevada and the District of Columbia tied with the highest rate of 7.8 percent.
Kentucky had the 17th highest annual unemployment rate among all states and the Washington D.C. in 2014.
In a separate federal survey of business establishments that excludes jobs in agriculture and people who are self-employed, Kentucky’s nonfarm payroll in 2014 increased by 29,000 or 1.6 percent to 1,858,900 employees making it the highest number of nonfarm jobs in Kentucky since 2007 when Kentucky’s nonfarm employment peaked at 1,866,700.
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