Quote:
Originally Posted by InLondon
The best is in Central KY. Woodford County almost always has the lowest unemployment rate in the state.
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I have to take issue with a couple of sub-points at hand. (1) Central Kentucky, as with all of the rest of the 120 counties, is struggling economically. How do I know? Around Frankfort, we have had numerous factory layoffs over the last few months. There are many of my classmates (HS '04) that have recently graduated from college and are struggling to find decent-paying jobs; one guy is getting by as a part-time substitute, another guy works for his dad's trucking business. One girl is a customer service manager at a department store, another girl has a B.A. (I think) in Elementary Education and can't find jack.
Shoot, I've sent out roughly 50 resumes and applications throughout the state and have only landed two interviews, neither of which resulted in a job offer. So, I'm still in retail. I've even been working those contacts...to no avail. (The goal, mind you, is to build enough of a comfortable nest egg in order to get out of this state and go to grad school without accruing a huge sum of debt.) Of course, I've sent a few resumes and apps. to other states, and nothing. Things are just getting bad almost everywhere, I suppose.
Anyway, my point is that Northern Kentucky (Boone, Kenton, Campbell Counties) actually has the strongest job market in the state. Several of my classmates have moved up there and then actually found decent jobs...this was pre-mid-2008, though. Central Kentucky has the second strongest job market (Louisville/Lexington), but don't let those "lower unemployment rates" fool you; jobs are dang-near impossible to come across here unless you have a strong connection. Then there are Western and Eastern Kentucky, whose regional economies have just gone down the crapper.
(2) Does unemployment rate telltale of a thriving economy? I believe a good economy combines factors such as (a) low unemployment, (b) comfortable/not outrageous cost of living, (c) comfortable job growth, and (d) a fairly educated class of individuals. Kentucky has (a) and (b), but not really (c) and (d). (Lexington has one of America's most education population bases, but get outside of the city and holy crap. I realize that there are education and undereducated people that either are or are not intelligent, but sometimes you really have to realize the poor secondary educational quality we have in Kentucky.)
Take this for example: the unemployment rate in Midland, Texas is 3.4%, but there has been economic/job stagnation over the last twelve months as oil prices have capped then plummeted. But before this last oil boom, a fairly educated class of people moved there from places like Houston, OKC, Tulsa, and Dallas to pursue engineering and management jobs in the oil companies. Same scenario in Houston, which has a much more diverse economy; currently a 5.8% (or so) unemployment rate, but that region is expected to shed 44,000 jobs, or the population of Jessamine County, in 2009. Yet, after that, it will still have a much lower unemployment rate than anyplace in Kentucky.
Basically, the people of Woodford, Oldham, Anderson, Fayette, Scott, and other low unemployment counties have by and large been able to keep their jobs. Central Kentucky has done a pretty good job of incorporating a diverse array of service and manufacturing industries. While Kentucky may never be a thriving state, and while we may even have one of the top 15 unemployment rates in the nation, we will not be in the dyer shape of Michigan, upstate New York, and parts of California b/c of our diversification and lower cost of living.
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