Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Jobs still low since hurricanes

A study examines business changes in Louisiana from before Rita and Katrina in 2005.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 18, 2007

NEW ORLEANS - Louisiana had nearly as many businesses by the start of 2007 as it did before hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit in 2005. But some areas hard-hit by the storms were still hurting, a new study finds.

Businesses were returning and new businesses opening even in those areas, according to the report written by a Louisiana State University researcher for the Louisiana Recovery Authority, and released on Friday.

But New Orleans lost more than one-fifth of its employers, and those remaining were smaller, said the report by Dek Terrell, director of LSU's division for economic development.

Job loss in the New Orleans area was much worse than employer loss, he said in an interview.

The LRA report looked at changes in the number of businesses statewide and in affected parishes from the second quarter of 2005 - the last full quarter before the hurricanes hit southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29 and the southwest on Sept. 24 - to the last three months of 2006.

New Orleans lost nearly 21 percent of its companies; employment was down by nearly one-third, 32.5 percent, Terrell said.

"They're either cutting back their business or they're trying to do more with less," David Bowman, the LRA's director of research and special projects, said during a teleconference.

Statewide, 96,747 companies and firms reported having at least one employee during the third quarter last year - about 892 fewer than the 2005 figure, for a loss of just under 1 percent.

But the five southeastern parishes had 2,591 fewer open businesses, with three-quarters of that loss, or 1,983 employers, in New Orleans. Plaquemines Parish lost 60 employers, a 13 percent loss.

Cameron Parish, the southwestern parish hit by Rita, was still down by 42 employers - 22.5 percent of its total.

The numbers of businesses declined for three quarters in the southeast before a net increase began. The southwestern parishes - Calcasieu, Cameron and Vermilion - essentially had pre-hurricane levels by early 2006, the report said.

"The difference between the regions may be attributed in part to the fact that most residents in the southwest regions returned to their homes fairly quickly, whereas residents in the southeast were unable to return to their homes for a significant amount of time," the report said.

Nearly 7,900 businesses statewide went out of business, but researchers did not know how many would normally have done so, said Andy Kopplin, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

[Last modified August 18, 2007, 00:47:22]