Kentucky Jobless Rate Up In November

Kentucky’s unemployment rate rose slightly in November, but the figure is still below the November 2009 rate.The 10.2 percent jobless rate recorded in November is the highest rate since May, when it was 10.4 percent.  But it’s still lower than the 10.7 percent rate recorded in November 2009.  And labor analyst Ron Crouch says six of the state’s 11 non-farm job sectors saw employment increases last month. “Construction, which had been going down for the year, went up by a thousand in the past month.  Part of that may be attributed to the stimulus package.  Also, manufacturing has gone up eight of the last nine months, which is also positive news,” he said. Mining and logging jobs were up, as were jobs in the financial sector.  But the leisure and government sectors saw employment losses.  One-point-eight million Kentuckians had jobs last month, but 213,000 remained out of work.