Students graduating in the next few semesters may find a growing number of job opportunities available in the Baton Rouge area.
During the Nov. 18 Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week breakfast, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber released its annual economic outlook which forecasts as much as a 2.5 percent employment growth rate in 2015 for the Baton Rouge area. According to a report by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, this forecast translates into 9,000 new jobs in 2015 with a total of 17,400 new jobs by 2016.
“This is definitely kind of a boom time for Baton Rouge,” said economics professor Stephen Barnes. “Baton Rouge is benefiting from a lot of industrial
expansions.”
Barnes also is the director of the University’s division of economic development which helps prepare the state employment forecast for the Louisiana Workforce Commission. He said the BRAC forecast is just one of the three annual forecasts that predict growth rates for Louisiana and the Baton Rouge area.
Chemistry senior Drake McCrimmon said his greatest concern with finding a job after he graduates is the level of competition in the job market with so many qualified graduates vying for similar positions.
While McCrimmon currently is considering graduate schools outside the Baton Rouge area, he said he would consider eventually returning to the region because of the increasing number of available jobs.
The division of economic development’s most recent employment forecast predicts an average growth rate of about 1.7 percent for the state and about 2.2 percent for the Baton Rouge area over the next two years, Barnes said. This is closely aligned with the numbers predicted in the BRAC forecast.
Barnes said he considers strong employment growth to be at or above 2 percent, but the most recent national forecast projects employment growth at about 1.1 percent per year.
“For Baton Rouge or the state of Louisiana to be outperforming the nation as a whole I think is a big deal,” Barnes said.
The local construction industry is one of the primary drivers of employment growth in the coming years, Barnes said.
“Baton Rouge is the home of several very large construction and support firms who will be doing work at sites across all of southern Louisiana and really even outside of the state as well,” Barnes said.
While the employment rate is expected to increase over the next few years, Barnes said the unemployment rate is not necessarily expected to decrease.
“I think the Baton Rouge unemployment rate in general has been a favorable statistic,” Barnes said. “For most of the last several years of history, we’ve had a lower unemployment rate than the nation as a whole.” 
When the economy experiences an increase in employment, the unemployed are able to find jobs more easily, but those who have given up on the job search and are considered to be outside the labor force often begin looking for jobs in the improved economy as well. 
Barnes said the unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by the total labor force. When individuals outside the labor force rejoin the number of unemployed, the unemployment rate can
experience an increase.
“There can be times, especially during improving economic conditions where the unemployment rate becomes a weaker indicator of the overall health of the labor market,” Barnes said.
While Barnes said the forecasted growth rate is a substantial improvement compared to what Baton Rouge experienced in recent history, the growth will be difficult to sustain in the long-run.
“I think Louisiana is benefiting right now from an unprecedented amount of industrial expansion,” Barnes said. “The region and the state are both working very hard to capitalize on this opportunity and create as many permanent jobs as possible through expansions of facilities in the area.”