Most of Louisiana’s Largest Cities Close To Recovering Pre-Pandemic Employment Levels

After nearly three years since the outbreak of the pandemic, it appears that most of Louisiana’s key metropolitan areas will finally return to their pre-pandemic employment levels sometime in 2023. The U.S. average national employment attained that in May 2022. The closest Louisiana market to reaching its pre-pandemic employment level is Lafayette, which is just 1,100 jobs or less than 1% from reaching that goal. Shreveport and Baton Rouge are between 1% and 2%, respectively, below their February 2020 employment base. Meanwhile, the one major market furthest from that mark is New Orleans, which is still about 4% below its pre-pandemic employment numbers.