Category Archives: Unemployment

“We have a lot of people who will tell us, ‘There’s no food in my pantry; I have nothing to eat,’” said Vicki Holbrook, co-director of the Letcher County Food Pantry. “If not for what we do here, we’d have a lot more people going hungry in Letcher County.” The Whitesburg initiative supplies food boxes […]

For eight years, Justin Johnson worked as an electrician in the coal mines, and life was good. He made a good living, got married. He and his wife, Christy, bought a house and had two children. But in 2011, the industry began a steady decline. Mines began closing. Companies began layoffs. Johnson held on until September […]

More than half of working age residents in Kentucky’s coalfield counties have been without jobs in recent years, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics that measure actual unemployment. John Short, a state representative from Hindman, said he sees no signs that the economy is improving in the heart of Kentucky’s coal-mining region. The Kentucky Cabinet […]