Kentucky’s preliminary August unemployment rate remained at 5.2 percent from a seasonally adjusted 5.2 percent in July 2015, according to the Office of Employment and Training, an agency of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet.
The state rate in August 2015 was 0.8 percent below the 6 percent rate recorded in August 2014.
The U.S. seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell from 5.3 percent in July 2015 to 5.1 percent in August 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Labor force statistics, including the unemployment rate, are based on estimates from the Current Population Survey of households. It is designed to measure trends rather than to count the actual number of people working. It includes jobs in agriculture and those classified as self-employed.
In August 2015, Kentucky’s civilian labor force was 1,941,531, a decline of 18,523 individuals compared to the previous month. Employment was down by 16,211, and the number of unemployed decreased by 2,312.
“The Kentucky labor market is the best it has been in more than a decade,” said economist Manoj Shanker of the OET. “The unemployment rate has been hovering at around 5 percent for most of the year, and that is as close to full employment as we can go without triggering higher inflation.”
From OET