Nov 15, 2005
The latest report on the nation's employment climate, released by the Labor Department, showed that the job market is slowly on the mend from the punches thrown by the storms but still isn't back to full health. "The economy has weathered these storms about as gracefully as could be expected," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com. But Katrina was far from an ordinary hurricane, because of the quick follow-up by Rita, the outsize infrastructure impact, and the huge energy-price surge that affected the economy outside of the region. All these factors imply an unusually prolonged hurricane effect. A number of economists think it will take several months for the impact of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma to work their way through the job market. Job creation in September was negative. In October, a surge in construction jobs pushed those numbers to the positive. While the majority of recruiters (56%) do not expect the effects of hurricanes Rita and Katrina will have a significant impact on the executive employment market — not all agree — 30% believe the devastation in the Gulf Coast will have a negative impact on the market and 14% think the disasters will lead to more job growth as reconstruction efforts take hold.
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