Unemployment fell for the sixth straight month in Louisiana, but payrolls moved in the wrong direction in October.
The jobless rate fell to 4.8% last month from 5.1% in September. Louisiana’s unemployment rate was 6.1% a year ago. About 100,000 Louisianans were jobless, down more than 5,000 from September.
Also, for the first time in years, Louisiana’s unemployment rate doesn’t rank among the 10 worst states. October’s U.S. rate fell to 4.1%, down slightly from September.
Louisiana’s continued unemployment decline, says Gov. John Bel Edwards in a statement, that Louisiana’s economy is turning around.
“We are not out of the woods yet, and we have a lot of work left to do, but for the sixth consecutive month, we are seeing strong signs of improvement for Louisiana’s economy,” he says.
One of those signs, he notes, is the recent announcement that Virginia-based DXC Technology will bring 2,000 IT jobs to New Orleans over the next seven years. The company will open a new “Digital Transformation Center” early next year in downtown New Orleans, initially employing 300 workers with salaries of $60,000 a year.
Meanwhile, the separate payroll survey—the top labor market indicator by economists—continued a multi-month downward trend, falling below 1.98 million jobs in Louisiana. Still, that’s 8,000 higher than last October.
The U.S. Labor Department released the figures today, adjusted to cancel out seasonal changes.
