For most of the 2010 calendar year, Clinton County boasted of having the lowest unemployment rate in the 10-county Lake Cumberland area. However, during the final month of the year, local unemployment followed a trend in the area of going “upward.”

Although Clinton County did have the second lowest jobless rate for the month of December 2010, it also hit the “double-digit” mark for the first time in several months, standing a 10.1 percent.

That rate was two tenths of a percent higher than Taylor County, which had the Lake Cumberland area’s lowest, and only single digit rate, at 9.9 percent for the month, according to figures released by the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training.

Clinton’s rate represents slight increase over the 9.5 percent that was reported for the previous month, November, 2010, and also an increase over the 9.5 percent from a year earlier in December, 2010.

The most recent figures show that the Clinton County labor force of 5,009 had some 4,502 who were employed, leaving 507 unemployed.

In the Lake Cumberland area as a whole, the average unemployment rate in December was 11.3 percent, up from 11 percent in November of last year. In December 2009, the unemployment rate for the 10-county area was 11.5 percent.

McCreary County recorded the highest jobless rate in the area in December at 15.2 percent. Other area rates for the month included: Wayne County, 13.6; Cumberland County, 12.4; Russell County, 11.2; Pulaski County, 11; Green County, 10.8; Casey County, 10.7 and Adair County, 10.4 percent.

Fayette and Woodford counties recorded the lowest jobless rates in the state at 7.5 percent each. They were followed by Christian County, 7.9 percent; Hopkins, Madison and Warren counties, 8.2 percent each; Franklin County, 8.3 percent and Calloway County, 8.4 percent.

Magoffin County recorded the state’s highest unemployment rate at 18.8 percent, followed by Menifee County’s 18.8 percent, Jackson County’s 17 percent and Lewis County’s 15.4 percent.

Unemployment statistics are based on estimates and are compiled to measure trends rather than actually to count people working. Civilian labor force statistics include non-military workers and unemployed Kentuckians who are actively seeking work. They do not include unemployed Kentuckians who have not looked for employment within the past four weeks.