(The Center Square) − Louisiana’s job market showed modest improvement over the past year, but the state’s economy remains mostly stagnant, an LSU Shreveport economist says.
Louisiana’s unemployment rate fell to 4.3% in November, tied for 33rd among the 50 states and lower than the national rate of 4.6%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of unemployed Louisianans declined to 88,684, down from 96,134 a year earlier, while the state’s labor force was essentially flat year over year, at about 2.08 million.
Douglas White, an economics instructor and director of LSU Shreveport’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said the latest figures fit a broader pattern.
“I’ve heard the phrase ‘muddling through’ – that there doesn’t seem to be strong growth, but there also doesn’t seem to be any kind of real contraction going on,” White said. “We’ve been bouncing between 4% and 5% … for the last, probably, 18 months or so.”
Louisiana’s unemployment rate dipped to nearly 3% in late 2022, a level that most economists viewed as unsustainable, he said.
The November state-by-state report was released after the federal government shutdown last fall delayed publication of October data. The November report emphasized over-the-year comparisons rather than the typical month-to-month change.
Economic indicators beyond employment were stronger. Louisiana’s real gross domestic product rose at a 4% annual rate in the second quarter of 2025, above the U.S. average, while personal income grew at a 6.8% annual rate, also outpacing the nation.
The growth preceded a string of big-ticket announcements, including Meta’s $10 billion data center in Richland Parish, Hut 8’s planned $10 billion AI data center campus in West Feliciana Parish, Woodside Energy’s $17.5 billion final investment decision for its liquefied natural gas facility and Hyundai Steel’s nearly $6 billion mill in Ascension Parish.
Projects that generate headlines don’t always translate immediately into broad-based labor-market shifts, White said. But Louisiana’s labor force has grown over the year without the unemployment rate rising, suggesting more people are working rather than leaving the job market.
“We’re seeing maybe people who weren’t in the labor force moving into the labor force,” White said.
