In what will likely be the last normal-looking unemployment data report in Kentucky for at least a few months, the jobless rate fell from January to February in Christian, Todd and Trigg counties prior to the arrival of COVID-19 in the U.S.
Christian County’s February jobless rate was 5.4 percent, down from 5.8 percent in January and up a half-point from a year ago. The unemployment rate in Todd County was 4.2 percent, up four-tenths from January and up from an even 4 percent last year.
Trigg County’s jobless rate was 5.2 percent in February, down from 5.5 percent in January and up from 5 percent in February of 2019.
All of these numbers were before COVID-19 concerns required the temporary closure of businesses and industries across the country.
Nationally, there is another record amount of unemployment claims reported amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Labor Department, more than 6.6 million workers filed first-time claims for benefits last week, more than double the 3.3 million claims filed the week before.