Total nonfarm, non-seasonally adjusted employment in the nine-parish Capital Region fell by an estimated 6,800 jobs from December, pushing the unemployment rate for January to 6.3% in January. Unemployment registered as 5.9% in December and 5.4% in January 2014.
But the Louisiana Workforce Commission says in its monthly jobs report released Tuesday that the 394,800 total nonfarm jobs is the highest ever recorded locally for the month of January.
“The Baton Rouge (metropolitan statistical area) gained 29,900 jobs when comparing the 2014 annual average to the 2010 annual average,” LWC says in the January report.
Average weekly earnings and hours were a particularly bright spot in the January jobs report for the Baton Rouge area. LWC reports average weekly earnings rose to roughly $872 across the Capital Region. Though that’s a scant 0.3% increase from the $869 average in December, but it’s a 12.5% increase from the $775 average of January 2014. Average weekly hours worked declined slightly in January to 36.2 hours, down from 36.8 in December. But the total also was also up considerably from the 34.6-hour average recorded in January 2014.
At 1,970,600 total nonfarm, non-seasonally adjusted jobs in January, LWC says, Louisiana also posted record high overall employment figures for the month. Nonetheless, it represented a loss of 39,600 jobs from the month previous, and also sent the state’s unemployment rate up to 7%. Louisiana’s unemployment rate was 6.5% in December and 5.9% in January 2014. Of the state’s nine MSAs, only the Houma-Thibodaux area, at 5.5%, and Lake Charles region, at 6.2%, posted lower unemployment rates in January than Baton Rouge.
See the complete January jobs report.
—Steve Sanoski
