Louisiana’s private sector employers added 30,000 jobs between October 2013 and October this year, which pushed total nonfarm jobs and total private jobs to record highs, according to figures released today by the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
Total nonfarm employment rose to 1,996,800 in October, non-seasonally adjusted data shows. Total private employment, meanwhile, reached 1,659,100, according to the data, which is drawn from a monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of 6,000 employers across industries and the state.
The highest employment growth came in the education and health services sectors, which posted a combined increase of 7,200 jobs over the year. The trade, transportation and utilities sectors added 6,900 jobs, while professional and business services added 5,800 jobs, leisure and hospitality tallied a 4,900 jobs gain, construction jobs shot up by 3,800 and manufacturing added 2,900.
The government sector shed 6,300 jobs between October last year and this year, the most of any sector; the decline included about 4,000 state jobs and 2,000 local government jobs.
The BLS uses a separate survey of households to estimate the state unemployment rate, which ticked up 0.3 percentage points to 6% in October. Louisiana’s civilian labor force grew to 2,187,741 in October, a year-over-year increase of 83,856. LWC says the vast majority of the additions to the labor force—73,807—were employed, while the number of unemployed rose by 10,049 over the year. LWC has more details on the figures announced today.
