Roughly 7,300 more people were employed in the Baton Rouge metro area last month than in August 2014, according to new non-seasonally jobs data released today by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The job gains led the local unemployment rate in the nine-parish region to fall to 5.5% in August, down from 6.8% in August last year.
The Baton Rouge area added 5,200 jobs in August compared to July, with the total nonfarm employment of 403,342 last month marking a record high for the area, according to the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
“The Baton Rouge and Lake Charles metro area labor markets continue to lead the state,” says LWC Executive Director Curt Eysink in a prepared statement. “The Houma and Lafayette markets are feeling the greatest effect of job losses caused by the low price of crude oil.”
Unemployment rates declined in all nine Louisiana metro areas in August. However, job losses related to the low price of oil continued in the Lafayette and Houma metropolitan areas, which have lost 2,400 and 900 jobs in the mining and logging sector, respectively, over the past year. Louisiana’s unemployment rate in August was 6%.
