Are unemployment rates declining in Louisiana?

BATON ROUGE, La. (KALB) – A report released by the Louisiana Workforce Commission on June 25 revealed how unemployment rates changed in Louisiana in May.

According to the LWC report, with data directly sourced from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2024 unemployment rate in Louisiana decreased to 4.1% from April to May.

The unemployment rate saw a total decrease of 0.2% when compared to April’s rate of 4.3%. Despite an improvement between months, the unemployment rate was lower in May 2023, sitting at 3.4%.

The number of unemployed workers in May of 2024 was 86,120 individuals, an increase of over 16,000 people since May 2023.

The industries with the highest increase in jobs between May of 2023 and 2024 were construction with 6,500 jobs, government with 3,600 and professional & business services with 1,600 jobs.

According to the LWC from May 2023 to May 2024:

• Alexandria gained 600 jobs (61,900 jobs)
• Baton Rouge gained 6,800 jobs (423,800 jobs)
• Hammond gained 100 jobs (49,700 jobs)
• Houma gained 900 jobs (85,900 jobs)
• Lafayette gained 600 jobs (205,400 jobs)
• Lake Charles gained 1,700 jobs (96,800 jobs)
• Monroe lost 1,500 jobs (76,700 jobs)
• New Orleans lost 1,700 jobs (565,700 jobs)
• Shreveport lost 1,900 jobs (177,100 jobs)

All data cited from the Louisana Workforce Commission are ‘seasonally adjusted statistics’. Seasonally adjusted data are used to reflect how employment and unemployment measures change from month to month without the inclusion of season pattern influences such as holidays, agricultural harvests and school schedules.

You can view all unemployment data in Louisiana here.

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