Area jobless rate state’s lowest

Lafourche Parish had the lowest unemployment rate of all parishes in the state in January at 3.6 percent, followed closely by Lafayette with 3.7 and Terrebonne Parish at 3.8 percent.

Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes’ low unemployment percentages gave the Houma-Thibodaux metropolitan area the smallest unemployment rate of the eight metropolitan areas in Louisiana at 3.7 percent.

The Lafayette metro area had a 3.9 percent rate, but that was the only other area to post below 5 percent in Louisiana.

St. Mary Parish’s 5.4 percent unemployment percentage in January was closer to the state average of 5.7. The rate for the U.S. was 8.5 percent.

The civilian labor force-the number of employed and those seeking jobs-in Houma-Thibodaux in January dropped 1,625 from December, 102,336 to 100,771. The number of people employed fell 1,700, from 98,400 to 96,700.

But the number of employed in Houma-Thibodaux increased 1,300 from January 2008. The civilian labor force rose 714 during the same period.

St. Mary Parish’s unemployment rate increased from 5.2 percent in December to 5.4 percent in January. The number of people employed (21,887) in St. Mary was a decrease from 22,990 in December and 22,109 in January 2008.

St. Mary’s unemployment rate in January 2008 was 4.4 percent.

For the Houma-Thibodaux area, the largest number of people were employed in the trade, transportation, and utilities sector at 24,700, followed by government (13,800), and retail (10,600).

The largest number of employed in the goods-producing sector was in the mining and logging category, which includes oil and gas extraction, at 7,000, followed by the 6,000 support personnel employed in the industry.

All sectors saw a decrease in employment numbers from December.