C100 releases monthly economic snapshot of Louisiana

●     Three sectors – led by healthcare – have contributed the most new jobs in Louisiana over the last five years, creating nearly 20,000 new jobs

●     Six out of nine Louisiana metropolitan areas gained jobs year over year

●     There are significantly fewer job postings over the last year, showing a cooling of the labor market, similar to national trends

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Louisiana economy has gained almost 20,000 jobs over the last five years in just three sectors – Health Services and Private Education, Professional and Business Services, and Manufacturing – according to the latest economic intelligence dashboard from the Committee of 100 (C100).  The full report can be viewed here: www.c100la.org/research.

“The demand for more workers remains high across Louisiana but has cooled over the last year, based on the total number of job postings,” said Adam Knapp, CEO of C100. “Given that, it’s positive to see the majority of Louisiana’s metropolitan regions gained jobs over the last twelve months.”

Among the sectors adding jobs over the last five years, Healthcare added the vast majority of the new jobs, accounting for 14,700 of the 19,400 new jobs.  It has been the fastest growing sector over the last five years. 

The Leisure and Hospitality sector has lost the most jobs, dropping over 19,000 jobs over the last five years including the COVID pandemic. 62 percent of those declines were in the New Orleans metro area. Government jobs declined by 10,600, and Trade, Transportation and Utilities lost the third most at 7,400 jobs.

Other major points in this month’s report:

·      Over the last year, more metro areas are growing than declining in number of jobs. Six Louisiana metro areas gained jobs as of May data, while three declined. Louisiana gained non-farm jobs by 0.3% overall. (Slide 3, 4)

·      As of June, the highest number of new job postings in Louisiana are for employment agencies, followed by job postings in ambulatory health care and professional scientific and technical services. (Slide 5)

·      The biggest workforce story is the decline in new job postings, seen almost across the board among the top 10 sectors with job postings, similar to cooling in the overall US labor market. (Slide 5)

·      Louisiana would add another 139,000 jobs if it reached the national average for the percent of its population who are working or seeking work (labor force participation). (Slide 6)

Taken as a whole, this month’s report shows Louisiana is adding jobs statewide and in most of its metropolitan areas, but doing so slower than other Southern states in the US and during a period of declining number of new job postings.