Louisiana’s unemployment rate is down nearly a half percent year-to-year for October, having added 3,600 seasonally adjusted non-farm jobs during that period.
The state’s unemployment rate now sits at 4.5 percent, up from 4.3 percent last month, but Workforce Commission Chief Economist Ali Bustamante says the trend is still towards growth.
“We’re actually looking at the total non-farm figures, and we’ve seen over the year increases in 20 of the past 23 months,” says Bustamante.
The state also remains in “Full Employment”.
Bustamante credits growth in the professional business services sector, which gained 3,200 jobs from this time last year.
“That’s really a great bedrock of job growth because of predominately higher-paying jobs that exist in this industry,” says Bustamante.
Bustamante says growth in professional services has led to record employment in the Baton Rouge and Hammond metro areas.
It’s not all rosy news though; year to year Monroe is down 800 jobs, Alexandria has lost 300 jobs, Houma bled 1,700 jobs, and Shreveport is down 1,600 jobs, but Bustamante sees a new trend.
“We are certainly seeing a lot of those economies stabilizing considerably over the past few months,” says Bustamante.
New Orleans lost 500 jobs over the last month but has still gained 8,600 year to year.
