May employment increases offer comparative gains

Latest figures from the Louisiana Workforce Commission offer the largest over-the-month listing of non-farm employment gains during May in two decades. Overall statistics also indicate a decline of available middle-range jobs in terms of skill demands and compensation.

LWC and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that private sector jobs in Louisiana grew by 11,100 placements from April to May and by 34,900 jobs since May 2010. At the same time there were 15,900 fewer government jobs in the state than there were one year ago.

‘May is the eighth-straight month that has shown over-the-year job growth, LWC Executive Director Curt Eysink said. ‘That trend appears to be very solid.

Using a new federal method of surveying employment, which reduces state input, BLS data listed Louisiana’s unemployment rate with a slight boost from 8.1 percent in April to 8.2 percent in May, while the national unemployment level increased from 9 percent in April to 9.1 percent in May.

Among all states, Louisiana maintained a better than average level. The highest unemployment rated state is Nevada at 12.5 percent and the lowest is North Dakota at 3.3 percent.

‘We’ve had a huge improvement May over May, Robert Half Branch Manager Shana Silcio said. ‘A large amount of companies that had put projects on hold are starting to get projects moving. I think we are trending in a positive direction.

Silcio, who represents client companies in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, confirmed that the boost in area jobs could be connected to a return of work activity following the BP explosion and oil spill of April 20, 2010, as well as the national recession.

‘It’s not exactly how it was before the downturn, but it is a little more of a [job] candidate’s market, Silcio said.

Detailed statistics for May had not been released by Monday morning, but through the end of April, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, along with La Salle Parish, all held the lowest individual parish unemployment levels in Louisiana at 5.4 percent. The area with the highest unemployment level in the state was West Carroll Parish at 16.9 percent.

While the U.S. Department of Labor reported that jobless claims fell by 26,000 between June 4 and June 11, many economists contend that is not a significant enough number to make any suggestions that the overall economy has turned. Some have specified that a number of claims filed does not account for those workers that either gave up on filing or never initially filed for unemployment benefits after losing a job.

Another concern, researchers note, is that newly available jobs do not necessarily match the levels of those lost, and many people returning to work are actually living with less income and below the standards of living they had prior to losing their previous employment. Suggestions have also been made that middle-range jobs, and in turn the middle class, are disappearing from the overall economic landscape.

According to the National Skills Coalition, middle-skill employment requiring more than a high school diploma but less than a college degree make up the majority of jobs in Louisiana.

A NSC report revealed that in 2008, the employment makeup of Louisiana saw 53 percent of all jobs categorized as middle-skilled. Low-skilled jobs accounted for 21 percent of available employment and persons filling highly-skilled positions represented 26 percent of the workforce.

Trend estimates indicate that by 2018, middle-skilled jobs could drop to 51 percent of the workforce, with high-skilled jobs maintaining a level at 26 percent, and low-skilled jobs increasing to 23 percent of all available positions.

The most recent LWC statistics available show that in the Tri-parish region 42 percent of jobs available in St. Mary Parish had no minimum educational skill requirements. That number decreased to 34 percent in Lafourche Parish and 28 percent in Terrebonne Parish.

Jobs with a high school diploma or equivalent as a minimum requirement account for 31 percent of the workforce in St. Mary and Lafourche parishes, but jumps to 56 percent in Terrebonne Parish.

Jobs requiring college degrees, account for 12 percent of the workforce in Lafourche Parish, 8 percent in Terrebonne Parish and 4 percent in St. Mary Parish.

The majority of jobs in the Tri-parishes require less than two years experience and account for 63 percent of the workforce in Terrebonne Parish, 61 percent in St. Mary Parish and 58 percent in Lafourche Parish.

Jobs requiring mid-skill experience levels of five years represent 38 percent of the workforce in Lafourche Parish, 36 percent in St. Mary Parish and 35 percent in Terrebonne Parish.

The NSC report characterized middle-skill jobs as being ‘key to our nation’s health, its infrastructure and its economic growth.

It is the middle-skilled jobs, and some claim even the middle class, that is being eliminated by the growing extremes of high wage and low wage work opportunities.

The Stanford Center Study on Poverty states that for the first time since 1928, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans control 23.5 percent of the nation’s income, as the U.S. poverty rate increased to a current level of 15.8 percent.

‘I don’t find the idea of class all that particularly helpful, Nicholls State University economics professor Morris Coats said. ‘There really aren’t huge distinctions from one class to the next. The whole notion of class, I don’t think is quite helpful.

Coats said that while the Stanford study and others like it offer interesting and even sound numbers, they fall short in suggesting obvious distinctions in employment and income categories when the lines of division are mostly unnoticed.

On the other hand, Coats confirmed that workers have not been either locked into or secure with maintaining specific economic and employment levels.

‘A lot of people have dropped in income level because of the recession, Coats said. ‘There is a lot more movement between one income level and much higher and much lower income levels.

While unemployment and added job figures offer conflicting impressions, the Stanford study listed more than 2 million unemployed or marginally attached Americans as having become discouraged with workforce prospects.

The LWC specified that Louisiana has the 26th lowest unemployment rate in the nation and seventh lowest in the Southern Region. It was also noted that government employment levels do not take into account the self-employed, which includes many fishermen and petroleum-related independent contractors.

Silcio said she anticipates a significant turn in what had been a tight job market. ‘Candidates may have been looking for a job instead of the right job and they were a little bit scared to leave positions they were in, she said. ‘Now they are feeling more comfortable and are going to be looking for other opportunities that are going to be paying them what their skill sets allow.

Coats confirmed that as the economy has changed so has workforce expenses and compensation.

Silcio suggested that trends might be turning as jobseekers make their expectations known and employers face reinvesting in what most benefits their businesses.

Kevin Lirette picks up debris outside the Ellender Federal Building, as employment numbers post an increase. Statistics indicate most available jobs are either in low-skill and low pay service positions or high-skill professions. MIKE NIXON