Workforce officials say La. has room to improve
by Jeff Matthews - The Town Talk (excerpt)

Unemployment figures for June showed Louisiana with the ninth-lowest unemployment rate in the country, continuing the trend of the state's rate being significantly lower than the national and regional rates.

The state is doing good, but it could be better. That's the message the outgoing and incoming executive directors of the Louisiana Workforce Commission brought Tuesday to a meeting of the Alexandria Rotary Club.

Louisiana has been somewhat insulated from, but not immune to, the national recession. Louisiana's unemployment rate for June was 6.8 percent, an increase of .2 percent from May but still much better than the 9.5 percent national average and the 9.2 percent average in the southern states. "Really, we have fared much better if you look at the rest of the country and the southern states," said Tim Barfield, the LWC's outgoing executive director. "But a lot of people are suffering. A lot of people have been impacted. We don't want to discount that."