Forex

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - With a cloudy economic picture hanging over the nation, Louisiana still finished January with 51,300 more non-farm jobs than in January 2007, though more than 20 percent of those came in the government sector, the state labor department reported Thursday.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the state shed 21,700 jobs in January, but the labor department described that as a normal seasonal downturn largely fueled by the end of temporary Christmas employment. The service-providing sector, which includes those seasonal jobs, fell by 19,700 from December 2007. The goods-producing sector dropped by 2,000.

But over the year, goods-producing employment, which includes the petroleum, manufacturing and construction segments, gained 13,600 jobs, while service-providing sectors gained an overall 37,700 jobs.

Propped up by record oil prices, petroleum gained 1,600 jobs over the year. Manufacturing was up by 5,300 jobs, with 1,600 of those in the petroleum-sensitive sector involved in shipbuilding and the building of offshore oil structures.

Construction gained 6,300 jobs over the year.

In the service-providing sector, goverment was the largest gainer, adding 13,500 jobs over the year -- 9,100 state jobs and 4,400 local government jobs. Federal employment was unchanged.

The education-health services sector added 9,100 jobs over the year, while leisure-hospitality added 9,000 more.

The financial services sector, which has taken hits because of the subprime mortgage crisis, lost 1,400 jobs over the year.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, Louisiana's unemployment rate for January was unchanged from December's 4 percent. The national jobless rate in January was 4.9 percent, a slight decrease from 5 percent in December. Over the year, the state's civilian labor force -- a factor in computing that rate -- grew by 27,867.

In January, there were 13,891 new and renewed claims for unemployment compensation, compared with 9,572 in December and 13,111 in January 2007. In January, 2,028 recipients exhausted their benefits, compared with 1,622 in December and 2,036 in January 2007.

Among the state's metropolitan areas:

-- Still trying to recover economically from Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans gained 17,000 jobs over the year, including 3,800 in the goods-producing sector and 13,200 in the service-providing sector.

-- Baton Rouge gained 7,600 jobs over the year, including 2,400 in the goods-producing sector and 5,300 in the service-providing sector.

-- Shreveport-Bossier City saw added 6,100 non-farm jobs over the year with 2,500 in the goods-producing sector and 3,600 in the service-providing sector.

-- Lafayette gained 4,300 jobs over the year. Of those, 1,700 were in the goods-producing sector and 2,600 were in the service-providing sector.

-- Houma-Thibodaux had an annual increase of 1,700 jobs, though goods-producing jobs fell by 600. The service-providing sector added 2,300 jobs.

-- Lake Charles lost 500 non-farm jobs over the year, the combination of a 600-job gain in the goods-producing sector and an 1,100-job loss among service-providing sectors.

-- Alexandria added 800 jobs over the year, 200 of those in the goods-producing sector and 600 in the service-providing sector.

-- Monroe added 300 jobs over the year. The region gained 500 service-providing jobs and lost 200 goods-producing jobs.