The Baton Rouge metro area added 1,000 nonfarm jobs in April compared to levels of March, but the nine-parish region’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.5%, according to data released today by the Louisiana Workforce Commission. Last year in April, the local unemployment rate was 4.7%.
Ascension and Livingston parishes recorded the area’s lowest unemployment rates in April, at 5.1% each. The rate in Ascension in March was 5.2%, while it was 5.3% in Livingston. East Baton Rouge Parish saw its unemployment rate slip to 5.4% in April, down 0.1 percentage point from the month previous.
Louisiana’s unemployment rate, meanwhile, declined by 0.1 percentage points over the month to 6.3%. The number of people looking for work also decreased by 1,494 in April, according to estimates from a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of 750 Louisiana households.
A separate BLS survey of employers across industries and the state found Louisiana added 4,500 nonfarm jobs in April to bring the nonfarm employment total to 1,986,500 non-seasonally adjusted jobs. Private employers added 4,300 jobs over the month and 15,000 jobs over the year. Professional and business services posted the largest over-the-month increase, with 1,700 additional jobs in April. Leisure and hospitality added 1,500 jobs, while the information sector added 1,000 jobs.
Mining and logging, which includes oil and gas, lost 1,100 jobs over the month and 5,100 jobs over the year.
Non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates fell over the month in six of Louisiana’s eight metro areas, as follows:
- Alexandria: 6.5%, down from 6.6% in March
- Hammond: 7.1%, down from 7.2%
- Houma: 5.6%, up from 5.5%
- Lafayette: 6.1%, up from 6%
- Monroe: 6.7%, down from 6.9%
- New Orleans: 6%, down from 6.2%
- Shreveport: 6.9%, down from 7%
