Whenever you move to a new location, you want to know that the future for you and your family will be at least as secure as what you are leaving behind. If you're thinking about buying a piece of Baton Rouge LA real estate, then, employment statistics in the city and region will be important to you. Is the situation here better than elsewhere in the country? It's true that experts such as Ron Meisels are expecting the recession to end any month now, but in the mean time, you do need to know what to expect.
Well, to the most telling numbers first. The current unemployment rate in Baton Rouge is sitting at just over 7%, or 26,300 people who could work (on the civilian side) not working. That might not sound so great, but compare it against the national rate. One in ten American citizens are currently out of work. With Baton Rouge sitting at 3% less, the numbers look pretty good.
But why is our city sitting better than most of the areas out there, particularly here in job-starved Louisiana? To understand that, we need to look at a breakdown of the jobs in which people in the city are employed.
The most telling statistic is that of people who work in government. Baton Rouge is the state capital of Louisiana, and traditionally government centers have stronger employment than other centers, thanks to the large bureaucracies involved. There are over 70,000 employed in various governmental jobs in the city, making it the highest job sector by far.
Those jobs are not only plentiful, but high paying as well. No need for educated governmental workers to worry about not being able to buy natural baby products and other goods. Still the jobs in government are not quite as high paying as those in the city's next biggest economic sector, trades, transportation, and utilities.
Baton Rouge has always been an important route of the inland United States, as the farthest deep port in the country. Work in the transportation industry involves everything from replacing an iron keel in an ocean tanker to offloading goods shipped from overseas.
Education and health services are up next, with over 42,000 positions in the city. No surprise here; these public services are needed by the majority of the population at one point or another. Whether you work a process calibrator to time critical machinery or are a registered nurse, there's good work for you here.
Finally, other services on the professional end make up the fourth largest sector as far as employment. Lawyers who work with industrial victims (those for whom adequate heatshrink sleeving for protection was not provided), bankers, and other professionals fall into this category.
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