Nearly 266,000 people are currently out of work in Louisiana because of COVID-19, local economist Loren Scott estimates.
It’s a significant spike from the reported 70,000 workers who applied for unemployment benefits the week before last—the week Gov. John Bel Edwards closed restaurant dining rooms across the state. The latest unemployment numbers have yet to be released.
Broken down by industry, Scott estimates some 177,000, or 85% of the workforce in the restaurant and hotel sector, are jobless. Also out of work are an additional 30,000 entertainment workers.
More than 13,000 construction workers are out of work, with an estimated 30% of those being in heavy civil construction. Merchandise sellers shed nearly 15,000 jobs.
“The numbers now are quite unusual,” Scott says, comparing the sudden layoffs to a dam breaking. “It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.”
Scott wasn’t able to estimate Baton Rouge-area specific figures, but did say the city has one thing going for it that other cities in the state mostly don’t—state government offices. “One piece of good news for Baton Rouge is that we’re not the oil patch, not like Houma,” Scott says, adding that places like New Orleans or Slidell who rely more heavily on tourism spending will also be hit harder than Baton Rouge.
Nationwide, 3.3 million American’s applied for unemployment benefits for the week ending March 21, up 3 million from the week before.
