Kentucky’s annual unemployment rate for 2021 was 4.7% according to the Kentucky Center for Statistics, an agency of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. This is a decrease from 6.4% in 2020.
The U.S. annual unemployment rate fell to 5.3% in 2021 from 8.1% in 2020.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ estimate of the number of employed Kentuckians for 2021 was 1,941,737. This figure was up 54,738 from the 1,886,999 employed in 2020.
The number of unemployed Kentuckians for 2021 was 95,205, down 34,598 or 26.7% from the 129,803 unemployed in 2020. There were 98,127 fewer individuals or 50.8% less unemployed in 2021 than 10 years ago.