While the bailed-out bankers and stock brokers on Wall Street have been realizing fantastic gains for the past several months, the pain finally appears to be dropping some for the working people of Kentucky, and those who are unable to find work.
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky’s seasonally adjusted preliminary unemployment rate declined .7 percentage point to 10.6 percent in November 2009 from a revised 11.3 percent in October 2009, according to the Office of Employment and Training (OET), an agency of the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet. November 2009’s jobless rate is 3.4 percentage points higher than the 7.2 percent rate recorded in November 2008.
“Kentucky’s economy continued to show signs of stabilization in November 2009. However, individuals who have faced long-term unemployment dropping out of the labor force and a rise in the number of people working part-time for economic reasons contributed to the decline in the unemployment rate,” said Dr. Justine Detzel, OET chief labor market analyst.
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Four of the 11 major nonfarm North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) job sectors reported an employment increase in November 2009, while six decreased and one remained the same, according to OET. A decrease of 4,900 jobs in November 2009 brought Kentucky’s nonfarm employment to a seasonally adjusted total of 1,758,800. Since November 2008, Kentucky’s nonfarm employment has plummeted by 79,300.
“Since the start of the recession in December 2007, nonfarm employment in Kentucky has decreased by 113,600 positions. This marks the 21st month in a row of year-over-year employment decreases and the seventh largest year-over-year drop on records dating back to January 1990,” Detzel said.
While it’s a long way from a good economy, at least there may be a bottom somewhere in sight now. Because nobody knows you when you’re down and out…
Kentucky unemployment is on the rise over the last month, but conditions vary throughout the state. Some areas are worse than others as visualized in this heat map:
http://www.localetrends.com/st/ky-kentucky-unemployment.php?MAP_TYPE=curr_ue
Since this is a ‘jobless recovery’, and at the projected rate of job recovery, we will enter the next recession before the jobs from this one have been recovered. With 2 ‘jobless recoveries’ in a row we will have a structural and underemployment index in excess of 25% of the work force. We need a new social paradigm to deal with this kind of employment.
One social paradigm shows the U.S. being the new India in 35 years. We will become the new member nation of the undeveloped element of the world. We will be dropped from the G-8 pretty soon – not enough ‘Gross Domestic Product’ manufactured here.
26 weeks of unemployment benefits is insufficient. Lower wages is an even less sufficient responce. Instead of unemployment, companies’ funds should be used to reemploy people in jobs performing public functions – like cutting grass, clearing debris, disaster responce, road & bridge maintenance half days and reeducation during the other half. This is an over-simplification. The real plan is more complex, but doable.