Stats: BR has No. 2 job market

• By GARY PERILLOUX
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Jul 1, 2009 - Page: 6B

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Baton Rouge’s job market continues to outperform nearly every metropolitan area in the U.S., with the Louisiana capital’s job gain from May 2008 to May 2009 ranking No. 2 in the nation, a federal labor agency reported today.

For the year ending in May, Baton Rouge gained 1,300 jobs — second only to Austin, Texas, which gained 4,200 jobs. Only 15 of 310 metro areas studied by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded job gains for the year. The biggest job decreases came in Los Angeles (down 255,000 jobs) and New York (down 233,000 jobs).

Baton Rouge’s unemployment rate in May — 6 percent — ranked 20th best in the U.S.

The Baton Rouge region’s showing was “perhaps most impressive because these jobs have been produced primarily in higher-wage, goods-producing sectors,” said Adam Knapp, president of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, in a news release. “Coupled with recent manufacturing investments such as SNF Holding in Iberville and PanAmerican Capital’s wood products investment in West Feliciana, the region continues to see new economic growth.”

Nationally, layoffs tied to the troubled housing and autos industries clobbered the West and Midwest in May and helped raise unemployment rates in all the largest metropolitan areas for the fifth straight month.

The highest rates of joblessness — of at least 15 percent — were concentrated in metro areas in California, Michigan and Indiana.

Employment at factories, construction companies, retailers and financial services has been especially hard hit by the recession, which started in December 2007 and is the longest since World War II.