Job growth slowing in state

• By GARY PERILLOUX
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Jun 26, 2008 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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What a difference a year makes. In May 2007, Louisiana’s post-hurricane growth had built a 66,000-job bulge over the prior May.

When the state Department of Labor released job figures Wednesday for this May, the annual gain was to 31,000.

Post-hurricane job growth clearly is slowing down for Louisiana, but slowing growth on top of previous gains still represents progress toward pre-Hurricane Katrina employment, state officials said.

Louisiana sits 6,200 jobs below its employment of 1.952 million people in May 2005, three months before Katrina.

The state labor force — those working or looking for work — remains 65,000 people short of the 2.073 million level of May 2005.

This May, state employment shed 1,800 jobs from April and the labor force shrank by nearly 11,000 people.

Patty Granier, who manages labor market information for the state, said it’s typical for Louisiana to see a downturn in employment for May stemming from the loss of student jobs and other positions tied to the college calendar.

Greater New Orleans, though it has 8,000 more jobs than a year ago, lost 1,700 jobs in May to land at 525,200.

“We saw that same thing (declining campus-based jobs) at the state level, but we also saw a couple of thousand decrease in tax and accounting services jobs,” Granier said.

Among the state’s eight metro areas, half of them saw slight job gains in May, including Baton Rouge’s 600-job gain to 373,600. Baton Rouge has 2,300 more jobs than a year ago.

Lafayette, down 200 jobs to 152,000, has 1,900 more jobs than a year ago.

Though Shreveport’s employment of 182,200 was unchanged in May, it represents 3,200 more jobs than a year ago, with a 3,500-job gain in the service-providing sector. That’s 1,200 jobs better than Baton Rouge’s performance in the same sector.

“Shreveport has really embraced the film industry,” Granier said. “They’ve been making a lot of movies in the Shreveport area. They’ve redeveloped their river area. And, according to our Career Solutions Center up there, they have a lot of new restaurants and new things to do downtown.”