Lowest unemployment rate since late 90's
Eric Burnette, Director of Labor Market Intelligence, KentuckianaWorks
The state of Kentucky recently reached a landmark unemployment rate - 4 percent. It was the lowest monthly unemployment rate for Kentucky since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began releasing statewide data in 1976, barely edging out the 4.1 percent unemployment rates of February-August 2000.
The Louisville MSA's latest 3.9 percent unemployment rate is still a bit higher than the 3.5 rate recorded in the same month in 1999 and the 3.7 rate in 1998. So the latest Louisville-area employment numbers are very, very good, if not quite record-breaking.
The U.S. is now in its second-longest economic expansion in modern history, behind only the 1990s boom that ended with the dotcom crash. While this is great, it also means that it would be unprecedented for the expansion to last beyond next summer. Still, these are good problems to have, and both the Louisville region and the state as a whole are doing better than they have been in decades.
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