News and Music Discovery
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

2014 Saw Economic Gains in Kentucky

Moritz Wickendorf, Wikimedia Commons

2014 could go down as a "breakout" year for Kentucky's economy.

Economists and workers in about every occupation imaginable were waiting for the effects of the "Great Recession" of 2008 to fade.

State Economist Manoj Shanker says a significant uptick has happened over the past eleven months.

"We've been expecting growth and recovery in the Kentucky labor market for the last two years, but it just hasn't happened.  But, this year, suddenly things aligned themselves just right, and it did take off," said Shanker.

Shanker says, as the national economy started to pick up, it signaled the start of an improving job market in the state.  The economist says it's been seen in most all sectors except construction, which he says lags a bit.

Kentucky's automobile industry has played a significant role in the economic recovery. Shanker says specific models made in Kentucky have helped drive the Commonwealth's job market improvement.

"The demand for cars is the ones we produce.  It's the Ford trucks and the Camrys and the Avalons.  That's really helped us because it's not just manufacturing jobs, but everything that feeds into it and the money just flows through the economy, so that means it helps other areas also," added Shanker.

The state economist says he thought Kentucky's recovery would come about a year ago but it was delayed primarily because the national recovery took longer than anticipated. ?

Stu Johnson is a reporter/producer at WEKU in Lexington, Kentucky.
Related Content