The Kentucky Education and Workforce Development announced Monday that Kentucky’s 2018 annual unemployment rate was 4.3 percent.

This is the lowest annual jobless rate for the state since 2000.

In 2000, the unemployment rate was 4.2 percent.

The cabinet said the unemployment rate dropped from 4.9 percent in 2017 to 4.3 percent in 2018.

The U.S. annual unemployment rate dropped to 3.9 percent in 2018 from 4.4 percent in 2017.

In Kentucky, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ estimates the number of Kentuckians employed in 2018 was 1,972,312. This is up 19,280 from the 1,953,032 employed in 2017.

The number of unemployed Kentuckians in 2018 was 89,310, which is down 11,415 from the 100,725 employed in 2017.

The cabinet said there were 40,745 fewer individuals unemployed in 2018 than 10 years when the economy was in recession.

For more info on Kentucky and the labor market visit http://kystats.ky.gov/KYLMI