BATON ROUGE (AP) – Louisiana's unemployment rate kept falling in August, but only because people kept leaving the labor force.
Employer payrolls rose by more than 4,000, though, recovering some of July's loss in that separate survey.
The jobless rate fell to 6 percent from 6.2 percent in July, and was below August 2014's 6.7 percent rate.
Louisiana's unemployment rate remained above the national average.
Fewer people reported having jobs, but the labor force fell by more than 15,000 people. Because so many people stopped looking for work, the number of unemployed Louisianans fell to about 131,000. That's down 6,000 from July, and about 14,000 lower than August 2014.
Both sets of figures — adjusted to cancel out seasonal changes — were released Friday by the U.S. Labor Department.
– by AP Reporter Jeff Amy
