Lafourche jobless rate remains state’s lowest

Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes continue to host low unemployment numbers, while the state average holds at 7.4 percent. Big oil and marine-based businesses, some say, are to thank.

Randall Domingue, the workforce development manager at Terrebonne’s Career Solutions Center, said the local economy is highly dependent on the price of oil. As the demand for oil increases, the local economy will continue to grow, yielding low unemployment numbers as a result.

Louisiana Workforce Commission Executive Director Curt Eysink said in a press release issued last week, “We are pleased to see Louisiana’s unemployment rate remain stable at 7.4 percent while the majority of other states in the country saw increases in their unemployment rate.” He also said that the private education and health care services sectors continue to generate jobs.

Louisiana’s seasonally adjusted (SA) unemployment rate remained unchanged from September to October. At 7.4 percent, the state still remained 3 percent below the national rate of 10.2 percent. According to SA unemployment numbers, Louisiana ranks 15th lowest in the nation.

Louisiana also experienced a drop in not seasonally adjusted (NSA) unemployment figures.

Lafourche Parish continued to have the lowest unemployment rate of all the parishes with 4.8 percent. NSA unemployment figures revealed that 47,028 people were employed in October in Lafourche, while nearly 53,000 were employed in Terrebonne, who had an NSA figure of 5.3 percent.

St. Mary Parish’s unemployment rate was slightly higher at 8.5 percent, with over 2,000 unemployed.

According to the Louisiana Workforce Commission, 59 parishes had decreases in unemployment, 1 remained unchanged and 4 increased by 0.2 percent or less.

Statewide, the number of unemployed fell to 146,539, with the number of employed up 21,144 to over 1.9 million.

While nobody is trying to predict the future, experts remain hopeful that current trends will continue.

“I think as the rest of the country starts to recover and the demand for oil increases [the local economy] will see unemployment numbers continue to go down,” said Domingue, pointing out that the marine transportation and ship building industries will flourish with increased demand for oil.

There’s no doubt that oil-related industries are the staple holding together much of south Louisiana. But education and health services have also prospered, adding 1,400 jobs over the month of October.

For the year, 4,500 positions were added to the health and education sectors.

Along with improving numbers, some sectors continue to struggle. The largest annual unemployment numbers mirrored national trends and were in manufacturing and trade, transportation and utilities, which rendered 10,300 lost jobs. Professional and business services and financial activities shed over 12,000 positions.

“Those industries that have been hit the hardest elsewhere in the country are the same ones impacted the most here in Louisiana,” noted Eysink.