The makeup of the Gulf Coast work force - heavy on warehouse employees and blackjack dealers, light on bankers and factory workers - has already complicated relief efforts and appears likely to add to Hurricane Katrina's economic damage. With a population less educated than the nation as a whole, New Orleans and coastal Mississippi employed many people without the kind of skills that would help them quickly find new jobs.
See "Willing Workers but With the Wrong Job Skills", David Leonhardt and Louis Uchitelle, The New York Times, September 8, 2005