Labor and Workforce

Graves County, KY Is A Certified Work Ready Community

A Kentucky Work Ready Community certification is a measure of a county’s workforce quality. It is an assurance to business and industry that the community is committed to providing the highly-skilled workforce required in today’s competitive global economy. Through this effort, Kentucky communities can assess their own workforce strengths and follow a process to become certified as Work Ready or Work Ready in Progress. The Kentucky Work Ready Community program has the ability to transform a community. It encourages counties to take a credible inventory of the current and future workforce, identify the gaps and carry out strategies to achieve a more knowledgeable, trained workforce.  In order to be certified as a Work Ready Community, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has taken steps to actively measure key factors including the following:

• High School Graduation Rates
• Working Age Population Without A Diploma
• Internet Availability
• Kentucky Essential Skills Certificate/Career Readiness Certificates
• Apprenticeship Availability
• Workforce Supply vs Demand
• Community Commitment

West Kentucky Labor & Workforce Statistics

The data above is provided by the Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics (KCEWS) utilizing data from the Kentucky Longitudinal Data System (KLDS), the Kentucky Workforce Intelligence Branch, Labor Market Information Section (Kentucky LMI) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).   The numbers above include data for all of Western Kentucky, not specifically Graves County, KY.  The Graves County Unemployment rate is accurate as of July, 2019. 

Kentucky Local Workforce Area Highlights For Western Kentucky

A study by the Kentucky Center For Education & Workforce Statistics has provided the following outlook for the Western Kentucky labor force through the year 2024.

• Employment is projected to grow to 174,069 a gain of 9.02 percent.
• Total annual job openings are expected to be about 5,446.
• Growth in employment will create about 1,587 job openings annually.
• Approximately 3,859 annual job openings will result from separations from the labor force due to retirement or those who transfer to other jobs.
• Twenty-nine percent of job openings will result from growth; the remaining 71 percent will result from separations from the labor force.
• The greatest number of annual job openings will be Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations (741) followed Sales and Related Occupations (617), Transportation and Material Moving Occupations (580).
• The two occupations with the largest projected number of annual job openings Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food (346) and Cashiers (224).
• The highest growth rates among occupational groups are likely to be Education, Training, and Library Occupations (19.22%) followed by Healthcare Support Occupations (19.11%) and Computer and Mathematical Occupations (18.37%).