FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Kentucky's unemployment rate has hit a 22-year high of 8.7 percent for January.
The Office of Employment and Training released the January jobless rate on Thursday. It rose by 1.1 percent over the December rate.
Chief state labor market analyst Justine Detzel said it was the largest single-month increase since March 1987.
Detzel said a downturn in the Kentucky economy intensified in January, knocking an additional 10,500 people out of work that month. She said most of the job loses were in the manufacturing sector.
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