Labor Day, a day for celebration
Published 6:00 pm Monday, September 2, 2019
We have a lot to celebrate on this 125th anniversary of Labor Day. Not only is the current unemployment rate at a near 50-year historic low, 3.7 percent. Also the highest number of Americans are working — more than 157 million working at this time, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“Year-over-year earnings growth has been at or above 3 percent for a year straight and is currently 3.2 percent. There are 7.3 million open jobs and there have been more jobs than job seekers for 16 straight months,” a spokesman said.
President Trump’s business friendly policies, such as cutting taxes, cutting business unfriendly regulations and his active promotion of job creating enterprises have been a tonic to the long stagnant American economy.
We can also be thankful that the American free enterprise system is being given another chance to work its economic magic. Small business is the number one job creator and always needs to be given the recognition it deserves for this great economy, as well.
The latest update on the employment and unemployment — July 2019 — shows that unemployment rates were lower in July than a year earlier in 217 of the 389 metropolitan areas and a total of 61 areas had jobless rates of less than 3.0 percent.
The figures for the Lake Charles Metropolitan area, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in July gave us a civilian labor workforce of 115,908, up from 115,678 in July 2018. The number of unemployed in our area in July 2019 was 4,885, which was down considerably from the 5,102 figure in July 2018. Lake Charles also had the lowest unemployment rate in Louisiana, at 4.2 percent.
The state of Louisiana as a whole, isn’t doing quite as well as Southwest Louisiana. The state’s civilian labor workforce was 2,119,110 in July 2019, down from 2,135,050 in July 2018. However, the number of unemployed Louisianians in July 2019 was 110,294, down considerably from the 121,375 in July 2010. The Louisiana unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, a full percent higher than Southwest Louisiana.
The figures show that Southwest Louisiana is leading the way and showing the way for the rest of the state to economic prosperity.
But we should never rest on our laurels and be self-satisfied, but always striving to reach higher goals. Enjoy this Labor Day. It is a day for celebration this year.
