Richland Parish’s employment rate has increased slightly in the last month, but is more than 2 percent higher than it was a year ago.

Figures released by the Louisiana Workforce Commission show the unemployment rate for Richland in October was 6.6 percent, up slightly from 6.4 percent in September but much higher than the 4.5 percent registered in October last year.

This translates to 594 people looking for work in October, up from 567 the month before and 329 a year ago.

However these same figures show that while the number of unemployed people in the parish has risen since last year, so has the number of people working. In October, Richland Parish had 8,412 people working in the parish as opposed to 8,240 in September and 8,339 for the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile the state unemployment rate rose to 5.5 percent in October, up from 5.2 percent in September and 3.6 percent a year ago. The national rate for October was 6.5 percent, up from 6.1 percent a month earlier.

Lafayette Parish had the lowest unemployment rate of 3.6 percent in October 2008, while East Carroll Parish had the highest rate of 10.9 percent.

“It appears that the hurricanes did have a significant effect on our employment in September, and that we’ve rebounded considerably from that,” said Tim Barfield, executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission. “The growth in the Louisiana workforce, both the number of people working and the number looking for work, indicates our economy is still growing and outperforming the nation.”