State's unemployment equals national rate
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The Minnesota unemployment rate has nearly doubled to 4.6 percent in 2007 when compared to a decade ago, according to LAUS (Local Area Unemployment Statistics). The state’s rate is identical to the national one: In 2007 the national average was reported at 4.6 percent; it has remained steady since 1998.
“Traditionally we’ve always been below the national level,” said Allan Miller of the Minnesota Workforce Center in Brooklyn Park, Minn. True to form, in January 2008, Minnesota’s rate declined 0.1 percent.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Minnesota ranks 30th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in unemployed workers.
While Minnesota figures have remained at or below the national average, in contrast, Louisiana has not fared as well. In September 2005 the Louisiana unemployment rate jumped to 11 percent from 5.1 percent in August after Hurricane Katrina hit, reported BLS. In New Orleans alone, the unemployment rate increased to a record high of 14.8 percent in September 2005.
In a report of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on BLS employment and unemployment data collection the BLS said “it was not possible to precisely quantify the impact of the hurricane on the overall September 2005 estimates because its effects cannot be separated from other influences on the economy, particularly at the national level.”
In the months after the storm some survivors returned to work, reported the BLS. “Others still had jobs from which they were temporarily absent… these individuals were counted as employed. Those who had lost their jobs were looking for work [were] counted as unemployed. Individuals who neither worked nor looked for work, perhaps because they were dealing with the aftermath of the storm, were classified as “not in the labor force,”’ the report said.
Estimates from LAUS do not reflect the geographic moves of the population affected by Katrina. “Official estimates associated with the evacuation and relocation of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama residents are not available at this time,” reported LAUS.
LAUS and other federal agencies have not found a significant relation or measure between the U.S. unemployment rate and the results of Katrina. LAUS and other federal agencies determine the failing housing market and the decline in consumer spending attribute to the increase in the national unemployment rate.