Metro Lafayette’s loss of some 9,400 over the last year drove local unemployment to 7.1%, making this area tops in the country for job losses.
As The Advertiser reports, that’s according to 24/7WallSt., a financial news and opinion company based in New York City.
The publication says the U.S. economy added some 2.4 million jobs over the past year, with the jobless rate declining from 5% to 4.9%. But some 75 U.S. metro areas lost jobs, with the worst performing job sectors coming in manufacturing, information, mining and logging and construction. Mining and logging includes oil and gas jobs.
24/7WallSt. reviewed metro areas around the U.S. with the largest employment drops from October 2015 to October 2016. Seasonally adjusted numbers were taken from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The company reported that metro Lafayette’s employment drop was 4.46% with jobs declining from 210,224 to 200,845 over the year.
Other Louisiana communities in the Top 10 for job losses were Houma-Thibodaux at No. 3 and Shreveport-Bossier City at No. 4.
24/7WallSt. reported that Houma-Thibodaux’s unemployment rate of 6.7% was affected by its 3.74% employment decline, a loss of about 3,400 jobs from 91,738 in October 2015 to 88,311 jobs in October 2016. Job losses in the oil and gas sector led the decline.
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