Unclear whether bill intended to reduce number of state employees will have significant impact
Baton Rouge — It may not be surprising that state Senator Jack Donahue’s legislation to reduce Louisiana’s disproportionately large government work force was met with criticism. What is surprising is that much of this criticism comes from administrators that support its underlying goal.
Interview excerpts regarding the Gulf drilling moratorium
In the process of covering the array of protests, town hall meetings, and study announcements surrounding the oil spill, I have had the opportunity to interview a diverse group of individuals. The primary point of concern has been the ongoing moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and I have sought to clarify why people support or oppose the moratorium and how they respond to the concerns of those with opposing views.
Rally for Economic Survival signals widespread hostility to moratorium on Gulf drilling
On Wednesday 11,000 people gathered in Lafayette to send a resounding message to Washington. The Rally for Economic Survival’s byline was “Lift the moratorium!” and Governor Bobby Jindal summed up the sentiment in the crowd: “We don’t want more BP compensation checks; we don’t want unemployment checks; we want to get back to work.”
Author estimates economic after-effects could be worse than that of the oil spill
On Monday in New Orleans, Dr. Joseph Mason of Louisiana State University presented a sobering assessment of the economic impact of a six-month drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. His report, commissioned by the American Energy Alliance (AEA), forecasts that over the coming year the moratorium would result in Gulf states losing 8,000 jobs, $500 million worth of wages, and economic activity would contract by $2.1 billion.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a decreased unemployment rate of 9.7 percent in January. At the same time, economist John Williams from Shadow Stats estimated the SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate to be between 22 and 21 percent. Williams explains how the two calculations differ:
The seasonally adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.
The SGS calculation takes into consideration a wider range of people than the BLS calculation. In estimating unemployment figures, the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the following definition:
Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work.
Given these drastically different estimations it would be inaccurate to rely solely on the BLS unemployment rates when examining the state of America’s job market. Additional indicators, such as the SGS rate, help to provide a better understanding of the grim unemployment situation.
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