What’s in a name? Defining the Kentuckiana region

The KentuckianaWorks’ Labor Market Intelligence office focuses its coverage area on the Kentuckiana region, a 13-county footprint that reflects the service regions of Southern Indiana Works and KentuckianaWorks, and is recognized by the Department of Labor as a regional planning unit. Due to recent changes in metropolitan area definitions, this will now entail a subtle shift away from the Louisville Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), a unit defined by the federal Office of Management and Budget.

The counties that comprise the Louisville Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) were revised in July 2023, after the results of the 2020 Census and 2016-2020 American Community Survey were incorporated into its methodology.

The Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area now reflects a total of 12 counties instead of 10, with the addition of Meade and Nelson counties in Kentucky. These two counties were home to nearly 80,000 residents in 2024.

MSAs are an important unit of economic analysis. In some cases, data is only available at the MSA level, and not smaller geographic areas like counties. Beginning with data referencing January 2025, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will reflect the revised 2023 metropolitan areas. The monthly “payroll” or “establishment” survey provides monthly updates on employment and earnings by industry, and is only available down to the metropolitan area. Occupational data, including the median hourly wage across all occupations, is likewise available for metropolitan areas, but not smaller geographies.

In other cases, data sources are available for both MSAs and counties. This includes the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly “household” survey, which provides monthly updates on the labor force and unemployment. Data from the Census Bureau covering detailed, annual data on demographic, social, housing, and economic conditions is also available for multiple, detailed geographies. Lastly, data from Lightcast, which provides insights from online job postings, among other sources, is available for custom-defined regions.

Moving forward, whenever possible, KentuckianaWorks’ Labor Market Intelligence will refer to the Kentuckiana region rather than Louisville MSA. This covers the 13-county service region of Southern Indiana Works and KentuckianaWorks. County-level data will be aggregated to the total service region when possible. Census data from the public use microdata sample covers a core 11-county footprint in the Kentuckiana region.

Because the payroll survey is only available for metropolitan areas, and interest in its high frequency updates has dissipated since the recovery from the COVID recession, this will no longer be a high profile indicator from this office. Instead, we will highlight the number of employed workers from the household survey, showing the number of Kentuckiana residents who reported they were employed the month prior.

Likewise, any analysis that covers change over time will reflect a consistent geographic coverage area. It is important to note that some data releases do not reconcile these geographic changes over time. This can lead to large and abrupt changes in time series analysis that are not meaningful changes, but due solely to changes in the geographic footprint reflected by the data. For example, the below time series showing the total population in the Louisville MSA shows a large decline in 2010, when Scott County, IN was removed from the MSA, and again in 2020 when Meade and Nelson counties were added to the MSA.

Metropolitan statistical areas are defined according to standards from the US Office of Management and Budget for the use of statistical purposes, and to provide consistency across governmental agencies. MSAs are a collection of counties, starting with a core urban area of at least 50,000 people, and surrounding counties that have significant commuting patterns into the urban area. Meade and Nelson counties were added to the Louisville MSA as outlying counties, as a result of commuting patterns into the region’s core counties (which include Clark County, IN; Floyd County, IN; Bullitt County, KY; Jefferson County, KY; and Oldham County, KY).