The parish's unemployment rate in April fell to 4.3 percent from the revised rate of 4.8 percent in March, tying Lafourche Parish as the lowest in the state.
Preliminary April unadjusted numbers released by the Louisiana Workforce Commission show that Lafayette and Lafourche parishes have the lowest unemployment rate in the state, 4.3 percent. Lafayette Parish dropped from 4.8 percent in March (revised), and Lafourche fell from 4.9 percent. St. Helena Parish has the highest unemployment rate, 11.5 percent, down from 12.1 percent in March.
Louisiana's unadjusted unemployment rate for April improved 0.6 percent from March to 6.4 percent. The seasonally unadjusted estimates show the number of unemployed people in the state decreasing by 11,901 over the month to 132,654 in April. The LWC's figures show that the state's seasonally unadjusted civilian labor force for April was 2.06 million, an increase of 10,791 from March. The number of people employed in April increased over the month by 22,692, to 1.93 million.
The seasonally unadjusted unemployment figures for all eight of Louisiana's metropolitan statistical areas showed improvements over the month and year:
· Alexandria: 6.4 percent, down 0.6 percent over the month and 0.1 percent over the year
· Baton Rouge: 6.4 percent, down 0.6 percent over the month and 0.4 percent over the year
· Houma: 4.4 percent, down 0.5 percent over the month and 0.7 percent over the year
· Lafayette (includes St. Martin Parish): 4.5 percent, down 0.5 percent over the month and 0.8 percent over the year
· Lake Charles: 6.1 percent, down 0.6 percent over the month and 0.2 percent over the year
· Monroe: 7.0 percent, down 0.6 percent over the month and unchanged over the year
· New Orleans: 6.4 percent, down 0.6 percent over the month and 0.2 percent over the year
· Shreveport: 6.2 percent, down 0.6 percent over the month and up 0.1 percent over the year