August 31, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

The labor market impact of Hurricane Katrina

This month, a special issue of the Monthly Labor Review examines the impacts of Hurricane Katrina from several perspectives: labor market impacts on the local economies, program impacts on the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other data-gathering agencies, and the nature of the coastal economy at risk.

[Chart data—TXT]

Employment in Louisiana fell sharply following Hurricane Katrina and remains well below its August 2005 level. In June 2006, nonfarm payroll employment in the New Orleans metro area was about 30 percent below the level a year earlier.

Employment in Mississippi edged down after Hurricane Katrina, but returned to its prehurricane level by February 2006. In the Gulfport-Biloxi metro area, however, employment was down 19 percent over the year ending June 2006.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics (State & Area) program. Read more about the labor market impact of Hurricane Katrina in the August 2006 issue of the Monthly Labor Review.