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« on: February 26, 2009, 11:43:10 AM »
SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Giving the republican response to President Obama's speech Tuesday night, Governor Bobby Jindal pointed out fundamental differences in how republicans and democrats see the economy. "But what I don't understand from Governor Jindal is what would he do?," asks Joe Biden while on the Early Show.
And That rhetorical question to Governor Jindal on the CBS morning show, was followed with this. "in Louisiana there's 400 people a day losing their jobs, what's he doing?" asks Biden.
But that claim is wrong, if you look at the numbers from the Louisiana Workforce Commission. "In December, Louisiana was the only state in the nation besides the District of Columbia, according to the national press release that added employment over the month," says Patty Granier with the Louisiana Workforce Commission. According to her, not only is Louisiana not losing jobs. "The state gained 3,700 jobs for the seasonally adjusted employment," Granier said of the most recent figures.
You don't even have to take my word for it, these are number you can check out yourself if you just go to laworks.net, there you can find the latest unemployment statistics, statistics that appear to directly contradict what the vice president said this morning.
The latest stats show this - from the week ending January 17th there were 4,527 claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana, for the next week, that number receded to 4,179.
Folks who crunch the numbers credit a diverse economy for Louisiana's resilience to unemployment.
It's unclear where the VP gets his numbers, but they certainly don't match numbers from the labor department. The unemployment rate in Louisiana has gone up, from 5.3 to 5.9. Some blame that on a bigger workforce in the state. However, that rate is still less than the national average, which sits at 7.2%. We called the Whitehouse press office today and left a message for the vice president's office, but have not received a call back.
