Port Arthur unemployment on the decline

PORT ARTHUR – The City of Port Arthur saw its unemployment rate drop to 14.2 percent in March — down almost an entire percentage point from 14.9 percent in February, and 1.5 percent from 15.7 percent in March 2012.

Robert Foster, labor market analyst at Texas Workforce Solutions, said these numbers were due in part to a smaller labor force. There were 19,865 people employed in March, 13 more than the 19,852 in February.

However, the total number of residents in Port Arthur who are employed has dropped from 20,062 in March 2012.

Unemployment in the Beaumont-Port Arthur metropolitan area has fallen from 9.9 percent in February to 9.7 percent in March — exactly where it was this time last year.

Jefferson County saw 73 people join its workforce in the month of March. Employment numbers rose from 107,690 in February to 107,763. In March, 10 percent of the county’s population was unemployed, as opposed to 10.2 percent in February and 10.4 percent in March 2012. The Jefferson County labor force shrank from 119,933 in February to 119,749 in March — down from 121,428 in March 2012.

“There is a lot of construction and a lot of expansions going on in the plants that will help tremendously,” according to Foster

Read More at the Port Arthur News.