Kentucky ranked second only to Alaska for employers’ struggle to hire. Here’s why

Meredith Howard
·2 min read
21

Alaska is the only U.S. state where employers are having a more difficult time filling positions than in Kentucky, according to a recent report.

In WalletHub’s June 29 ranking of States Where Employers Are Struggling the Most in Hiring, Kentucky ranked high for its job opening rates in the past 12 months and the most recent month.

The firm weighed the most recent month (April 2022, per Wallethub) twice as heavily as the total past 12 month job openings metric, and the ranking cited U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

May 2022 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers put Kentucky’s unemployment rate at 3.8%, lower than all but 19 states and the District of Columbia.

For the same month, WalletHub ranked Kentucky the 12th highest state in the country for job resignations.

Minimum wage in Kentucky still sits at the federal level established in 2009, which is less than half of the living wage for one adult with no children, according to MIT’s calculator.

An associate professor at Eastern Michigan University’s College of Business, Anushri Rawat, said in the article competitive wages, autonomy, flexible work arrangements and growth opportunities are all factors influencing whether an employer will be successful in filling positions.

“The turnover rates went haywire after the pandemic hit, and it fundamentally altered the nature of the job market,” Rawat said in WalletHub’s story. “And the turnover intentions of workers could only get higher due to a confluence of factors: Government stimulus, lockdowns, health and safety concerns, childcare burden, stress, and burnout leading to intentions of a career change, etc.”

An assistant professor of human relations at Pennsylvania State University told WalletHub she believed conditions may improve for employers later in the year.

“I am optimistic. I believe that the current turbulence will lead to a better ‘balance’ in the labor market, but it will take some time. The reprioritization of values and needs, hopefully, will lead to employees not making compromises and employers adjusting their policies and practices to better fit the evolving needs of their employees,” Dorothea Roumpi said to WalletHub.

Here’s the top 25 state where employers are struggling to hire, via WalletHub:

  1. Alaska

  2. Kentucky

  3. Georgia

  4. Montana

  5. Iowa

  6. West Virginia

  7. South Carolina

  8. Illinois

  9. Minnesota

  10. Vermont

  11. Wisconsin

  12. North Carolina

  13. North Dakota

  14. Michigan

  15. Massachusetts

  16. South Dakota

  17. Tennessee

  18. Hawaii

  19. Rhode Island

  20. Indiana

  21. Virginia

  22. Alabama

  23. New Mexico

  24. Louisiana

  25. Maryland

Here’s how the nation as a whole did:

Source: WalletHub

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