St. Mary jobless rate at 5.0% in March

St. Mary employment grew by 204 in March, when the parish's unemployment rate was 5.0%, 0.1 point lower than in February, the Louisiana Workforce Commission said Friday.

Parish total nonfarm employment grew to 18,194 last month, up from 17,090 in February, the commission reported. St. Mary has grown by 662 jobs and the unemployment rate has fallen from 7.0% since March 2021.

Statewide, the March unemployment rate was 3.8% tied for the lowest March ever in the state. It was a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from the revised February 2022 not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.9%.

Since February 2022, the number of not seasonally adjusted employed individuals increased by 17,477 from 1,998,882 to 2,016,359 in March 2022. When compared to March 2021, the number of not seasonally adjusted employed individuals increased by 83,099.