B.R., La. manufacturing employment virtually unchanged

Industrial employment in metro Baton Rouge and Louisiana dropped slightly from April 2010 to April, according to a new report. The state lost 1,147 industrial jobs, a fall of less than 1%, to end up with 190,408 manufacturing jobs, according to the 2011 Louisiana Manufacturers Register. Baton Rouge had an even smaller decline, falling from 15,859 manufacturing jobs to 15,796. The Capital Region remains the state’s manufacturing hub. Manufacturers’ News, which published the report, says the Capital Region and Louisiana rebounded after 2010, when manufacturing employment statewide was down 2.3%. Chemical manufacturing remains the biggest employer in the state; there were 25,186 plant workers, up 1% from 2010. Industrial machinery and oil and gas extraction also saw employment increase. Even though the state saw layoffs at Northrop Grumman’s Avondale shipyard and at Lockheed Martin’s NASA Michoud Assembly plant, jobs were gained at facilities such as the Scotts Miracle-Gro plant in Ascension Parish, the Tyson Foods and Syntroleum biofuels plant in Geismar and a Shell asphalt plant in St. Rose.