Business Report
Baton Rouge has added more than 6,000 jobs in the past three months, according to the latest report from the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. There are currently more than two job postings for each unemployed worker, with the most in-demand positions being for retail workers, registered nurses and retail supervisors.
“Newly released data show strong net in-migration, with nearly 9,000 more people moving to the region than leaving. This equates to 25 new residents moving to the Capital Region every day,” says Andrew Fitzgerald, senior vice president of business intelligence for BRAC, in a prepared statement. “East Baton Rouge was a major part of this in-migration, with a net number north of 8,000 residents. “
The chamber is still digging into the underlying demographics, but one early quirk we’re seeing is that women are in-migrating at a higher rate than men, Fitzgerald says via email.
“Also, roughly the same amount of people out-migrated as previous years, so this is fully greater in-migration,” he says. “Both could be related to greater higher ed enrollment, but that’s speculation at this point.”
Fitzgerald says BRAC is planning to publish an in-depth breakdown of migration data in its 2023 Economic Outlook Report on Dec. 6.
Key findings from this month’s dashboard include:
- Baton Rouge has added 6,800 jobs in the last three months including 1,200 new jobs in September.
- This month marks six straight months of job growth for the leisure and hospitality sector.
- Baton Rouge has had the second-highest rate of job growth over the last two months compared to peer metros, however it has yet to recover all jobs lost during the early months of the pandemic.
- The Capital Region’s unemployment rate fell to 3.2% this month, and there are 2.2 job postings for each unemployed worker.
- Hotel revenues are below 2021 levels but above 2020 levels.
- The metro area netted 8,858 new residents from migration in 2021, largely due to in-state movers.