Clearing The Air

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Minnesota's unemployment rate increases....one of the biggest losing sectors was the hospitality industry......2,100 lost jobs

The full story is found here, and tells us that Minnesota's unemployment rate has been lower than the national unemployment rate for 30 years.....until now.

Minnesota's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate jumped to 4.5 percent in April from 4.2 percent in March........Losers for the month were construction, down 2,500 jobs, or 1.9 percent; manufacturing, down 2,000 jobs, or 0.6 percent, and leisure and hospitality, down 2,100 jobs, or 0.8 percent....."it eliminates those bragging rights we've had for three decades."

Keep in mind that the 2,100 is the number of lost jobs in just one month.

....so what do state Democratic lawmakers decide to do?

Enact a statewide smoking ban....which will eliminate many more jobs in Minnesota's hospitality industry. And our liberal Governor, Tim Pawlenty, says he will sign it tomorrow 5/16/07.....he's a disgrace to the typically free market leanings of the Republican party.

It's high time to investigate the special interest groups which lobby in favor of smoking bans......and I would now extend that call for investigation to include state lawmakers who were only too happy to oblige the rent seeking lobbyists. Especially in light of the fact that the "health hazard" scam has been thoroughly debunked using sound scientific methodology. (see links below:)

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/04/bmj-published-air-quality-test-results.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/11/is-secondhand-smoke-health-hazard.html

Update: Nationally the unemployment rate has increased as well. The nationwide job losses in the hospitality industry due to smoking bans has no doubt only added to the problem.

Also see:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/08/smoking-bans-and-organizations-that.html