A summary is below. More details are available on our State Employment Page.

March 23, 2018

Summary

• Louisiana added 2,800 jobs and the unemployment rate declined by 0.1 percentage point to 4.5 percent in February according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

• Over the past twelve months, Louisiana lost 200 jobs and the unemployment rate fell by 1.2 percentage points from 5.7 percent.

• In February, Louisiana's private sector added 2,800 jobs and over the past twelve months, it created 2,700 jobs.

• The number of unemployed Louisianans fell by 1,469 in February, and over the past year, 42,042 Louisianans found jobs.

• Louisiana’s labor force participation rate increased to 59.2 percent from 59 percent in February.  Since last year, the labor force participation rate rose 0.5 percentage point.

• The national unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent in February.  State employment and unemployment data for March is scheduled for release on April 20, 2018.  The national employment situation report for March will be released on Friday, April 6, 2018.