Employment declined in 5 of the 7 largest parishes in Louisiana from December 2024 to December 2025, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Acting Regional Commissioner Jerome Watters noted that Orleans Parish (-2.3 percent) had the largest over-the-year decrease in employment. (See chart 1 and table 1.)

  

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Chart 1. Over-the-year percent change in covered employment among the largest parishes in Louisiana, December 2025

County	Percent change, December 2025
Orleans	-2.3
Jefferson	-0.8
East Baton Rouge	-0.7
Lafayette	-0.4
Calcasieu	-0.2
Caddo	0.0
St. Tammany	0.9

East Baton Rouge Parish (272,600) had the highest employment level in Louisiana in December 2025. Together, the seven largest parishes accounted for 56.2 percent of total covered employment within the state. Nationwide, the 372 largest counties and county equivalents (including parishes) comprise 73.4 percent of total covered employment in the United States. (Large counties and county equivalents are those with annual average employment levels of 75,000 or more in 2024.)

Average weekly wage gains in 5 of 7 large parishes in Louisiana were below the national average of 4.2 percent. (See chart 2.) St. Tammany had the largest gain (+5.3 percent). Over-the-year wage gains among the other six large Louisiana parishes ranged from 5.1 percent to 1.8 percent.

  

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Chart 2. Over-the-year percent change in covered average weekly wages among the largest parishes in Louisiana, fourth quarter 2025

County	Percent change, fourth quarter 2025
St. Tammany	5.3
Caddo	5.1
Orleans	3.7
Lafayette	3.1
East Baton Rouge	2.7
Jefferson	2.4
Calcasieu	1.8

Weekly wages in all seven large parishes in Louisiana were below the national average of $1,569. Average weekly wages ranged from $1,383 in Orleans to $1,205 in Lafayette.

Employment and wage levels (but not over-the-year changes) are also available for the 57 smaller parishes in Louisiana, defined as having employment below 75,000 in 2024. (See table 2.)  Wage levels in 51 of the 57 smaller parishes were below the national average. Cameron reported the highest average weekly wage ($2,247) in the state. Madison reported the lowest average weekly wage ($808).

Among all 64 Louisiana parishes, 12 reported average weekly wages of $949 or less, 20 had wages from $950 to $1,074, 7 had wages from $1,075 to $1,199, 11 had wages from $1,200 to $1,324, and 14 had average weekly wages of $1,325 or higher. (See map 1 and table 2.)

QCEW data for states have been included in this release in table 3.

Nationwide coverage of the largest counties is published in the County Employment and Wages news release. Additional information about quarterly employment and wages data is available in the news release Technical Note and from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages website.

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The County Employment and Wages release for the first quarter 2026 is scheduled to be released on Friday, August 28, 2026.