Kentucky unemployment was down to 4.9 percent in the month of August. The rate dropped 0.1 percent from July, and 0.4 percent from August 2015. Economist Manoj Shanker said “August was a rare month in which everything came together for Kentucky’s labor market. The labor force expanded, employment increased, unemployment dropped, and the unemployment rate matched the national average at 4.9 percent.” Health care jobs had the strongest gain from August 2015, with an addition of 11,500 jobs. Kentucky’s statewide unemployment rate and employment levels are seasonally adjusted to eliminate seasonal events, such as weather changes, harvests, holidays, and school openings and closings, to easily observe statistical trends.