This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that there were more American's employed in July than at any point in the history of BLS data keeping. According to the BLS, the United States added 157,000 jobs in July 2018 on top of a revised 248,000 in June to bring the total number of Americans employed to 155,965,000, a record.

Individual state data for July will not be released until later in the month, but should bode well for Kentucky, which is already at a record level of employment as of preliminary numbers in June. In total, 1,976,075 Kentuckians were employed in June, up 1,921 over the total in May. Much like the national trend, this is an all-time record for individuals employed in Kentucky.

Kentucky's unemployment rate ticked up during May and June from its all-time record low of 4.0 in April 2018, due entirely to a growth in labor force. The total labor force of 2,054,136 in April grew to 2,063,041 in June, an increase of 8,905 individuals. The total number of unemployed grew marginally in June as well, as more people entered the labor force, the first increase in seven months. Unemployment in June was still more than 60% below the height of unemployment during the Great Recession.