Gulf oil disaster could destroy over 100,000 jobs

rawstory.com...

The impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was thrown into sharp relief Tuesday, as US data showed rising unemployment in Louisiana and experts warned the disaster could cost up to 100,000 jobs.

The US Department of Labor said Louisiana -- among the US states worst hit by the spill -- was one of only five states across the country to see a rise in unemployment last month, with the jobless rate up 0.2 points to seven percent.

While the bayou state's unemployment rate remains well below the national average of 9.5 percent, the data comes amid warnings that a worst-case scenario would see 100,000 jobs lost across the Gulf Coast.

Analysts at Moody's reported that the region could face billions of dollars in lost growth from the spill, depending on whether a recent cap halts the flow of crude.

"Moody's Analytics estimates that nearly 1.2 billion dollars in output and 17,000 jobs will be lost in the Gulf Coast states by the end of this year," the firm said in a report.

I think this is a conservative estimate but perhaps these numbers will be offset by the clean up crews and medical personnel that will be hired in the future to take care of this mess.

[edit on 21-7-2010 by whaaa]

Great. That's all this economy needs...fewer jobs. How is BP ever going to offset this kind of tragedy? Insult to injury to particularly the people still recovering from Katrina. Let's hope those forced to work on the cleanup stay healthy. This is going to be a very long haul.

But hey, to quote many of the members here, the jobs are out there...all they have to do is uproot their homes and families and move to where they are. Oh, and don't forget they can't be picky about what kinds of jobs they take either.