Oil still bolstering Acadiana parishes

The oil-job-rich Lafayette and Houma-Thibodaux metropolitan statistical areas continue to vie for the lowest unemployment in Louisiana while the state as a whole is running near a full point below the nation in joblessness.

This according to figures released by the state Department of Labor comparing jobs in January 2008 with those of December 2007 and January 2007.

Both the Lafayette MSA and the Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux MSA posted unemployment rates of 3.4 percent for January 2008 compared to 4.6 percent statewide and 5.4 percent nationwide.

Lafayette Parish, which with St. Martin comprises the Lafayette MSA, had the lowest rate of unemployment in the state, 3.3 percent. St. Martin Parish had 4.1 percent.

Lafourche and Terrebonne, the two parishes comprising the other low-scoring MSA, each had unemployment rates of 3.4 percent.

While the relative positions of the oil parishes of southern Louisiana are good, the trend is downward everywhere.

Between December and January, St. Martin lost 416 jobs and gained 182 job-seekers for a change in the unemployment rate of 3.2 percent for December to 4.1 percent for January.

The unemployment rate in St. Martin Parish in January 2007 was 3.8 percent.

The Lafayette MSA went from 2.7 percent in December 2007 to 3.4 in January 2008.

Statewide, unemployment swelled from 3.8 percent to 4.6 percent, and in the nation it went from 4.8 percent to 5.4 percent between the last month of 2007 and the first month of 2008.

The above figures are not adjusted to account for seasonal farm labor.