N.O. not immune from recession, UNO report says

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

The New Orleans metropolitan area is not immune from the national recession, which is flattening the growth of Hurricane Katrina-related recovery jobs, according to a report released today by the Division of Business and Economic Research in the University of New Orleans’ College of Business Administration.

“The overall employment growth fueled by the recovery post-Katrina has been forced flat by the national recession,” the report says.

But there’s good news in the report, too. For example, the New Orleans metro area is not shedding jobs as much as other parts of the country are.

Here’s an excerpt from the report:

The slight gain of New Orleans jobs of 0.2% over the year, as small as it is, is still a welcome contrast to the nation’s average loss of 3.1% of all jobs.  This is a welcome sign of local stability compared to the job losses occurring nationwide.•