Mr. Paul’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Unemployment rates in some rural counties are in the double digits. Rates of hunger and poverty, high before the crisis, have soared. Kentucky has lost more than 20,000 state and local government jobs since February, and with budgets crippled by falling tax receipts, officials must choose between raising taxes and cutting services.
“It’s frustrating that our own senator won’t support local governments,” Mr. Wireman, a Democrat, said. “These are extraordinary times, and we need to be taking extraordinary measures on the national level from our federal government to help folks out.”
Like many rural areas across the country, Magoffin County depends heavily on the public sector. State and local government jobs account for nearly a third of all employment in the county, versus an eighth of all jobs nationally. Elliott County, two counties to the north, is even more reliant: Nearly two-thirds of all jobs are government jobs, including more than 200 at a state prison.
“In many rural communities, state and local government is the major employer,” said Janet Harrah, executive director of outreach at Northern Kentucky University’s business school.
State and local governments also offer “good jobs” — stable, relatively well paid, with benefits — where the factories and coal mines that once served that role have often shut down. Cutting more jobs, Ms. Harrah said, will slow the recovery.
Kentucky’s economy has pockets of strength. Statewide, the unemployment rate was 5.6 percent in November, better than the national rate of 6.7 percent. The state’s central location has helped it become a logistics hub for UPS, DHL and Amazon, which have thrived during the pandemic boom in online shopping. Toyota and Ford have factories in Kentucky; they shut down early in the pandemic but have roared back to life to meet rising demand.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/business/economy/kentucky-economy.html
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