Kentucky’s seasonally adjusted preliminary unemployment rate for April was unchanged from the 9.8% recorded in March, the Office of Employment and Training said Tuesday. The jobless rate was 6.1% in April of last year.
“Despite job losses across the board, Kentucky’s unemployment rate held steady in April 2009 at a 25-year high of 9.8%,” Justine Detzel, the agency’s chief labor market analyst, said in a press release. “This is a result of individuals who have faced long-term unemployment becoming discouraged and dropping out of the labor force.”
A decline of 8,000 jobs brought Kentucky’s nonfarm employment to a seasonally adjusted total of 1,788,400. Since April of last year the state’s nonfarm employment has plummeted by 72,500.
The monthly estimate of the number of unemployed Kentuckians for April was 204,026, down 864 from the previous month.
