St. Mary hires more, but jobless rate rises

Louisiana’s job market sputtered in January as the state recorded the third-highest unemployment rate among the states.
The state’s jobless rate fell to 7 percent from 7.2 percent in December. That’s well above the 5.5 percent the state recorded in January 2014.
St. Mary’s jobless rate was 7.3 percent in January, up from 6.7 percent in December and 5.7 percent in January 2014.
Employment here has actually risen by about 120 jobs over the last year to 23,613. But the number of unemployed St. Mary residents went up even faster, growing by more than 400 to 1,863.
Unemployment increases have been driven in recent months by a rapidly increasing number of job seekers, outstripping the number of new jobs being created. The number of people who told survey-takers they had a job in January rose to a new all-time of 2.05 million. But the workforce of 2.2 million people kept growing as well, limiting the decline in the jobless rate.
That dynamic was behind nine straight months of rising unemployment levels from March through November of 2014. Jobless rates stayed level in December before falling in January.
The report found 154,000 Louisiana residents were unemployed in January. That’s down by almost 6,000 from December but more than 38,000 above January 2014.
Unemployment rates fell in 24 states in January, rose in eight and were flat in 18. Mississippi and Nevada were tied for the highest jobless rate at 7.2 percent, while North Dakota retained the nation’s lowest jobless rate at 2.8 percent.
The national unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent in January from 5.6 in December.
Figures, adjusted to cancel out seasonal changes, were released Tuesday by the U.S. Labor Department.
The unemployment rate is calculated by a survey that asks how many people are looking for a job. A second survey each month asks employers how many people are on their payrolls, a measure many economists use as their top labor market indicator.
Louisiana payrolls fell by 7,500 in January, dipping from an all-time high of almost 2 million payroll jobs in December. Employers report 25,000 more jobs than in January 2014. The state’s payrolls have risen 6.1 percent since bottoming out in early 2010 and are 2.5 percent above pre-recession levels.
Payroll employment fell in January in economic sectors including leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, construction and government. Louisiana payrolls rose in trade, transportation and utilities; education and health services; financial activities and manufacturing.
The broadest measure of those who are unemployed averaged 11.3 percent in Louisiana for all of 2014, the most recent figures released. That includes people who look for work only sporadically, who have given up looking or who work part time because they can’t find a full-time job.
Nationwide, that broad measure averaged 12 percent during the same period.