Housing and workforce development.

There are two issues that have been top of mind lately for Kentucky leaders.

Yesterday in Frankfort, legislators heard about what business leaders are doing and what they can learn from other states.

Our Emily Sisk has more in tonight's legislative update.

Our workforce participation right here in Kentucky sits at about 57%, which is the bottom ten of all the states throughout the US.

So how does Kentucky engage the remaining 43% of eligible workers to get a job?

The statewide Workforce and Talent Team, or Swot, said their initiative is to encourage businesses to collaborate with workforce partners.

We're building a system where everyone works hand-in-hand to help our citizens.

The Kentucky Community and Technical College system is also in on the group, hoping to educate workers in skilled labor positions.

One Kentucky lawmaker asked how the group can include people with disabilities.

And unfortunately, most parents worry what's going to happen to my child when I'm gone because most time they end up on state dime.

They're very dedicated workers.

You know, when they get focused on something, they're focused.

The chamber president said they've partnered with the University of Kentucky to conduct a disability hiring academy for employers.

Employers?

I think much like with second chance hiring or or any issue like that, they want to do the right thing, but sometimes they need a little help on how to accommodate that population, update their HR policies.

And so we do a several day programing for employers to make sure that they are realizing there is a huge talent pool out there, like you said.

And how can they make sure that population brings into the workforce?

Another senator said she has seen the group's success firsthand when a Pendleton County business relocated out of the state.

The workforce team came together to ensure employees could remain in their community.

We actually turned around and sold that facility and have a new employer.

So we had very few people on unemployment.

We are keeping people employed in Pendleton County.

Thank you Lord.

Thank you.

Swat team.

The chamber president said the two greatest barriers for workers are housing and childcare.

A chamber representative then gave lawmakers a housing update, telling legislators the data speaks for itself when it comes to Kentucky's lack of housing.

No one's making that up.

We literally just kind of stopped building at one point at a rate comparable to how we were building.

And that's one of the reasons why you're hearing about this issue so much.

Charles all said in the early 2000s, the state was issuing about 20,000 building permits every year by 2008.

That number was cut in half.

We're building at a certain rate for a while.

It just falls off a cliff and we never quite recover.

The Kentucky Chamber showed ideas from states like Indiana, where they're using revolving loan funds to build new subdivisions.

A Democratic lawmaker shared his own idea about what Kentucky should do.

I like this Indiana program.

I would prefer it to be a forgivable loan program, I'll tell you that.

The chamber representative said building more houses will go hand in hand with increasing workforce participation.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Emily Sisk.