Hurricane-Related Job Losses Jump

Jobless Claims Due To Gulf Hurricanes Now At 438,000

(CBS/AP)  Company officials, now working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are doing school-by-school structural assessments. They're also working with the school board and national education groups about how to recraft the system.

But before a top-notch educational system can be realized, children who will fill these new, improved classrooms and hallways must return, something no one can promise.

"I would be surprised if they get 10,000 students this year," Jacobs said. "I'll be surprised if they end up with 25,000 next year. A tremendous amount of people are out of town where they're likely to find better housing, better schools and better jobs."

The government reported last Friday that the nation's jobless rate was pushed to 5.1 percent in September from a four-year low of 4.9 percent in August. Business payrolls fell for the first time in two years, a decline that was also attributed to the hurricanes.

The 389,000 new claims for jobless benefits that were filed last week represented a drop of 2,000 from the 391,000 claims filed two weeks ago. Analysts have been encouraged that the level of jobless claims in the rest of the country has remained steady, indicating that the overall economy has been able to weather so far the shocks from the hurricane and the resulting surge in energy prices as Gulf Coast production facilities were shut down.

The weekly jobless claims report showed that the biggest increase for the week ending Oct. 1 occurred in Texas, a rise of 17,931 that was attributed to the hurricanes. The layoffs occurred in construction, public administration and manufacturing.

Louisiana had the second largest increase in layoffs, a total of 8,580, a rise that was also attributed to the hurricanes. The breakdown for individual states lags behind the national data by one week.

The worsening of the country's trade deficit was driven by a record-high bill for petroleum imports. Analysts predicted further bad news in the months ahead, reflecting the surge in energy costs that occurred after Katrina and Rita shut down refineries and oil and natural gas platforms along the Gulf Coast. Crude oil prices briefly spiked above $70 per barrel right after Katrina hit.

Underscoring that point, the Labor Department said in a separate report that the price of imported goods rose by 2.3 percent in September. The gain, the biggest in 15 years, was driven by a 7.3 percent surge in petroleum prices. The cost of foreign oil is now at record levels, pushed up by big increases over the past four months.