On this Labor Day, Louisiana workforce officials are pleased with the state’s unemployment rate. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
Cut 1 (29) “I’m Kevin Barnhart”
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Louisiana is receiving an additional 80-million dollars federal transportation money, but Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson is concerned bonus highway dollars from the feds may soon stop.
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On this Labor Day, the percentage of unemployed workers is less than last year. Chief Economist for the Louisiana Workforce Commission, Dr. Ali Bustamante, (Ah-lee Boost-uh-monty) anticipates the unemployment rate to continue to decline…
Cut 3 (10) “…numbers in employment.”
Bustamante says for those looking for work, the health care industry continues to look for qualified workers…
Cut 4 (12) “…home health care services”
Employers and job seekers can go to La-Works-dot-net and click on the Hire tab , which is a website tool that connects businesses with those looking for a job. Bustamante says for those that are working and looking to climb the income ladder, the state has just the resource for you with its incumbent worker training program.
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The LA Wallet App has a few new tricks up it’s sleeve. Now Louisiana residents who’ve purchased the app that features a digital copy of your driver’s license will be able to verify the suspension status, whether or not someone is of the legal age from across the room, if they agree to it. Envoc President Calvin Fabre says it’s useful for everyone from rideshare customers to real estate agents, but first…
That’s raised some fears that the new functionality could lead to security breaches and the transmission of private information to people who shouldn’t have it. Fabre says they put layers of security on the service, and consulted privacy advocates like…
And in other LA Wallet news, Fabre says they’re almost finished getting official permission for bars to take nothing but your wallet app
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Louisiana recently announced an additional 80-million in federal transportation dollars, but Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson says the days of the state getting extra money from the feds for road improvements might stop. Wilson says state resources have become so tight, it will be difficult for Louisiana to put up the matching dollars
Wilson says the state legislature had a chance to generate more revenue for Louisiana highway projects by raising the gasoline tax in 2017…
The 80-million dollars is in addition to the 700 to 800 million dollars Louisiana receives every year from the federal government. But Wilson says the state could start to see fewer federal transportation dollars, because Louisiana’s current state gasoline tax of 20-cents per gallon is not generating enough money….
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The Louisiana Department of Education has a new grading system to check year to year academic growth progress of students and it’s already beginning to show interesting results. Assistant Superintendent Jessica Baghian (Bahg-e-ON) says they noticed a gap between growth in English scores and Math scores.
The Lafourche and Ascension Parish School Systems both earned high marks for their recent progress in bumping up scores. Baghian says best practices from those two districts will be incorporated statewide.
But it’s not all good news. The state’s achievement gap between the general population and black students continues to grow, adding to the academic performance distance between those two groups that’s existed for decades. Baghian says the two percent lower scores for African American students adds up.