BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s non-farm job employment dropped by 4,500 in September, a month during which two hurricanes disrupted business in wide sections of the state.
The Louisiana Workforce Commission says that on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, there were still 5,700 more jobs last month than in September 2007.
The labor agency’s executive director, Tim Barfield, said hurricanes Gustav and Ike make it difficult to pinpoint exactly what the latest figures mean about the state’s economy.
At least partially because of the storms, there were over 67,000 new and renewed claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana last month. There were about 19,000 such claims in August — and about 8,800 in September 2007.
 
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