LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) -
Unemployment is down and transportation costs are up as Lubbock National Bank released their economic index numbers for January 2012 on Tuesday.
Unemployment sits at 5.8 percent. That's down from this time last year, when unemployment was at 6.4 percent. However, it's still not quite where we were back in 1996, when unemployment was at 4.6 percent.
But unemployment wasn't the only news to come from the Lubbock Economic Index on Tuesday.
According to James Arnold with Lubbock National Bank, beef cows are arguably at their economic worst since 1957.
"The drought happens, the cattlemen are forced to sell their cattle off at ridiculously low prices, to move the product because they can't afford to feed them. They sold all their inventory and now there's no inventory on the ground to sell now," he said.
Arnold says it's a catch-22 for our local producers. He expects Lubbock will continue to see beef and milk prices rise, while transportation for those goods and services are also going up, especially with gas prices heading towards $4 a gallon.
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