The New Orleans Business Alliance says a new state jobs report shows that a focus on growing the city’s information technology and retail sectors is paying off.
In the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s most recent report available, Orleans Parish saw a 2.8 percent employment growth between the second quarter of 2014 and the same quarter this year. That amounts to 5,139 more jobs.
The largest gains in that time frame came in the IT, retail and hospitality sectors, with each adding more than 1,200 new jobs year over year.
“In this case, IT covers jobs we traditionally would think of in this sector, including many of the kinds NOLABA and others have worked to recruit to the city, such as software development, app development, web design and development,” NOLABA senior research associate Tre Rials said in a news release. “It also includes telecommunications firms and film and video production. The retail jobs are a definite product of increasing the number of retailers citywide.”
Over that time period, the parish has added more retail projects, including Magnolia Marketplace, The Outlet Collection at Riverwalk, Wal-Marts in New Orleans East and Gentilly, shops in the South Market District downtown and the second phase of Algiers Plaza.
Most other industry sectors grew by around 3 percent in the same time period, Rials said.
The data shows that wages remained stable over the same period, with a 2.8 percent jump in average weekly wages in the office sector. The arts sector saw a decrease from $763 to $520 per week.
