Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · LA NONMETROPOLITAN AREA · October 2026
Every advertised-pay, job-posting and industry figure in this briefing comes from WageScape's own database of active job postings. The sources below back the external facts cited in the written analysis.
Sources cited in this report
Key Indicators
Louisiana unemployment insurance claims below year-ago levels (1,204 vs 1,485)
Louisiana Workforce Commission — Weekly UI claims, week ending Sept 19, 2026
This Month's Takeaways
East Carroll Parish unemployment at 13.4%, West Feliciana at 3.6% in June 2026
Bureau of Labor Statistics — County-level LAUS data, June 2026
St. Tammany Parish wages up 23.4% in Q1 2026 vs 1.1-4.2% in other large parishes
Bureau of Labor Statistics — Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Q1 2026
Local Economic Conditions
Louisiana reached record employment over 2.01 million, tied 1st nationally in payroll growth
Joint Economic Committee / BLS — September 2026 Louisiana employment release
Louisiana labor force participation fell to 58.4% in August, ranking 43rd nationally
Louisiana Workforce Commission — August 2026 labor force participation data
Looking Ahead
National wage growth slipped to 3.0% against 3.4% inflation, lowest since May 2021
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 employment situation report
How the numbers are calculated
- Advertised pay is the median of the pay ranges employers publish in active job postings in this metro. It is not survey or payroll data.
- Percent changes compare the latest six full months with the six months before that, for the same metro and sector.
- Sectors group postings by the employer's industry (NAICS) classification into ten sectors. Where a metro has too few postings in a sector, the state figure is used instead.
- Role pay trends use the same comparison windows. "Stable" means a change of less than 3%; "moderate" 3–10%; "significant" more than 10%.
Official data for comparison