The number of people looking for work, but unable to find a job reached an all-time low in September, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly 68-thousand people were considered unemployed. The state’s unemployment rate held steady at three-point-three percent, tying a record low. University of Louisiana at Lafayette Economist Gary Wagner says hiring has escalated over the last year.
“Certainly in the last twelve, the state has performed significantly better than any period that we had post-COVID. We gained 46 thousand jobs across the board. It was a really positive economic report.”
Wagner says the state has added nearly 280 thousand jobs since the worst of the pandemic. He says the state’s employment growth level is still recovering from the pandemic.
“One caveat to that is we still have some people that dropped out the labor force during COVID that haven’t come back yet. That number is getting smaller it’s probably in the 15 to 20 thousand range.”
Wagner says there have been 30 consecutive months of job growth. He says those jobs were mostly in education, health services, construction…
“We’re certainly see oil and gas jobs pick up again. Over the last twelve months the industry is up by seven percent. I think that’s a really positive sign that we’re seeing some significant gains.”
The number of unemployed people in Louisiana is under 68 thousand. Jobs can be found on the LWC’s HIRE website.
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