Narrative: II. a. 1. B.

(i) Employment and Unemployment

Total Nonfarm Employment, Not Seasonally Adjusted, LA (2012-2015)

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Total Employment for Selected Sectors, Not Seasonally Adjusted, LA (2014) - Includes Mining, Education&Health Services, and Trade, Transportation, & Utilities.

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Over-the-Year Change in Total Nonfarm and Private Sector Jobs (NSA), LA (January 2013 - September 2015) -The state has consistently added jobs year-over-year since the beginning of 2013.

Year over Year Change in Total Government Jobs (NSA)-Another trend evident in is the decline in the number of jobs in the public sector
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United States and Louisiana Employed-to-Unemployed Ratio - Comparison from January 2008 thru January 2015.

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Initial Weekly Unemployment Insurance Claims, January 2008 to October 2015 -It is evident over this period that hurricanes created large disturbances in the labor markets of Louisiana. For example, Hurricane Gustav August of 2008.

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Continued Weekly Unemployment Insurance Claims, January 2008 to October 2015 - The highest 4 Week moving averages were during the recession, 2009.

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National and State Labor Force Participation Rates

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Participation Rate and Unemployment Rate in Louisiana (1976-2015)- The charts above show the unemployment rate and labor force participation rate from 1976 to 2015. This time period covers the last five U.S. recessions as designated by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

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Employment Status of the Civilian Non-Institutional Population, Annual Averages, Louisiana (October 2014-September 2015)

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Civilians Not in the Labor Force by Sex and Age, Annual Averages, Louisiana (October 2014-September 2015)

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(iii) Education and Skill Levels of the Workforce

“It’s been proven time and again that a more educated and trained workforce is our greatest long-term economic generator.”

Governor John Bel Edwards, January 11, 2016

Louisiana’s Emerging Workforce

Addressing the education and skills gaps of our emerging workforce is critical. Louisiana is one of the richest states in cultural and natural resources, yet our performance lags in almost every critical category. The following are some very daunting demographics of the Louisiana emerging workforce:

• Louisiana ranks 49^th in K-12 academic achievement; and while our high school graduation rate is at an all-time high at 72.3%, we still fall below the national average of 80%.
• One in four children in Louisiana is born in poverty, as Louisiana‘s poverty rate is 19.6% compared to the national average of 14.8%.
• Louisiana is noted as the worst state in the union in pay equity.
• Louisiana has the dubious distinction of one of the nation’s highest adult illiteracy rates.
• Louisiana ranks 38th in the country in terms of the employment rate of people with disabilities.

o Only 32.1% of the approximate 366,981 working age Louisianans with disabilities are employed.

o Over 23,100 youth ages 16-20 with disabilities and each year a quarter of them will age out of school into an uncertain future.

What’s more, Louisiana is also the world’s prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per capita, than any of its U.S. counterparts. One in 86 adult citizens of Louisiana is serving time in prison; nearly double the national average. Inmates in local prisons are typically serving sentences of 10 years or less on nonviolent charges such as drug possession, burglary or writing bad checks. State prisons, on the other hand, are reserved for the worst of the worst: those serving long-term prison sentences for violent crimes.

Ironically, it is the long-termers who are offered training in the skills trades such as welding, auto mechanics, air-conditioning repair and plumbing in the state correctional facilities. Such opportunities are not available to the 53 % serving their time in local prisons. The cruel reality is that those who could benefit most are unable to better themselves, while men and women who will die in prison proudly show off fistfuls of educational credentials and certificates with an inability to put them to use.

For the past decade, Louisiana has shifted toward a knowledge-based economy. Employers increasingly require postsecondary credentials when hiring workers for good jobs that provide family-supporting wages and career advancement opportunities. The State projects, and is preparing for, a shift in the next five years that will result in an estimated two-thirds of jobs requiring postsecondary education of some kind.

Louisiana recognizes that nearly half of children whose mothers have not completed high school do not graduate on time themselves, compared to just less than five percent of children whose mothers have a bachelor’s degree. The state and local boards are responding to this connection between a parent’s level of education and their children’s skills, academic outcomes and health through aggressive outreach to identify at-risk families and by developing specific interventions within its adult and youth programs.

Total Nonfarm Employment, Not Seasonally Adjusted, LA (2012-2015)

The preceding table shows the number of completers from Louisiana’s public postsecondary education programs by degree level. Academic years 2010 through 2014 are included. The academic years are labeled by the year in which they begin, so 2014 is the school year beginning in June 2014 and ending in May 2015. This is compared to the number of annual openings from LWC’s long-term projections. This comparison shows a gap in the “some postsecondary” category, which includes short-duration training programs such as certificates or diplomas, that provide less training than a full associate degree.

High demand occupations span all education levels, from occupations requiring a high school degree or less to those that require extensive post-secondary study. Most of the occupations in Table 4 require a Bachelor’s Degree or higher, while the occupations in Table 5 exhibit greater educational diversity, with all levels of educational attainment represented. Table 5 occupations also exhibit significantly more annual total openings than those in Table 4, suggesting that job seekers for those occupations may have an easier time finding a job.