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Two comparisons, both shown. The national basis ranks Rockcastle County against every scored U.S. county — its percentile band above is a relative national standing, not a condition. The in-state basis ranks it against Kentucky's other counties (rank and percentile only — bands aren't meaningful within a single state). A county can stand out in its own state while sitting mid-pack nationally. Neither is a forecast.

Pillar breakdown — national percentile ranks

What this means for Rockcastle County

Rockcastle County scores 71.5 on the national CAERI basis — 50th of 3,142 scored U.S. counties, placing it in the Top 10% band nationally by percentile, with a low-confidence rating. Within Kentucky it ranks 1st of 120 counties (99th in-state percentile). The score summarizes how concentrated local employment is in AI-exposed occupations against the economy's measured capacity to adapt; these are relative-standing bands, not a projection of local job change.

Direct occupational exposure stands at the 76th national percentile. The largest concentrations of locally estimated employment in high-exposure occupations are office clerks, general, customer service representatives, secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive. The share of exposed-industry jobs held by workers under 25 is 12% — well above the state median of 10%; research on AI-era payrolls finds early-career roles in exposed work are where hiring patterns shift first, so this share indicates how soon exposure could be felt, not how large it is.

The share of exposed-industry jobs held by workers 55 and over is 23% (below the state median) — a higher share historically means slower workforce adjustment when industries restructure. Fiscal sensitivity ranks at the 70th percentile among Kentucky's counties. Census of Governments data shows state aid at 20% of this county's general revenue (below the state median), and wage- and consumption-sensitive streams (sales, income, and similar own-source taxes, where levied) at 51% of own-source revenue. Property taxes, which respond to economic change more slowly, are counted separately and are not part of that sensitive share. How this state's aid formulas and tax structure carry economic change into local budgets is covered in the state-specific fiscal analysis available to subscribers. All county occupation figures on this page are model-based ESTIMATES with the confidence rating shown above.

Largest locally-estimated employment in high-exposure occupations

Across all 167 high-exposure occupations (top quartile of ensemble exposure) with estimated local employment, Rockcastle County has an estimated 978 jobs — 25.3% of county employment — carrying an estimated $52M annual wage bill in high-exposure work. The five largest:

Age structure of exposed-industry employment

Cite this page

Machine-readable: this county's JSON · national dataset download and data dictionary on the methodology page.

Nearby and comparable counties

Hickman Co., KY (in state)McCreary Co., KY (in state)Oldham Co., KY (in state)Franklin Co., TX (similar score)Colonial Heights Co., VA (similar score)Montgomery Co., MD (similar score)

Links point to the economically nearest counties (in-state, and similar national score). County-level geographic adjacency is not part of the public reference data, so proximity here is by rank, not by shared border.

Sources & provenance