Baton Rouge continued its historic run in the job market, adding 9,100 jobs in November to mark its 59th straight month with over-the-year job increases, according to the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
The Baton Rouge metro area’s 4.9% unemployment rate for November comes in second in the state, behind only Lake Charles at 4.8%, and 1.2 percentage points ahead of the Capital Region’s unemployment rate last November, which stood at 6.1%, numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Lake Charles is the only metro area besides Baton Rouge to gain jobs in November.
The numbers, which are not seasonally adjusted, show statewide unemployment at 5.9%, down from 6.8% a year ago, even though the state lost 11,500 jobs in that time span. The state’s labor force dropped by 40,000 since last November, while the number of people out of work dropped by nearly 23,000 since last year.
Despite six metro areas losing jobs in November, seven of the nine metro areas showed a drop in unemployment by more than one percentage point.
The Lafayette and Houma-Thibodaux metro areas saw their unemployment rates increase as both areas have been hit hard by the continued slowdown of the oil industry as oil prices continue to plunge. Lafayette lost the most jobs in the state, 5,100, followed by Houma-Thibodaux with 2,800 jobs lost and New Orleans with 1,700 jobs lost.
“The oil-sensitive coastal parishes have taken a blow, with 9,600 of the jobs losses over the year in the Lafayette, Houma-Thibodaux and New Orleans areas,” LWC Executive Director Curt Eysink says in a prepared statement.
Hammond holds the highest unemployment rate in the state at 6.5%, followed by Shreveport at 6.4% and Lafayette at 6.3%.
—Ryan Broussard
