BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – The Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) will host jobs fairs across the state on Wednesday, August 4 as part of its “Back to Work Louisiana” campaign.
Louisiana’s unemployment rate has nearly halved since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, falling from 13.1 percent in May 2020 to 7.1 percent this past May, according to preliminary numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That is still 1.9 percent higher than Louisiana’s 5.2 percent unemployment rate in February of 2020 before the state began enforcing lockdowns intended to slow the spread of the virus.
“We know that employers are hiring and that people are eager to get back to work,” said LWC Secretary Ava Cates in a press release. “This job fair will go a long way in connecting people who have been out of work to life-sustaining careers at a time when they need it the most.”
The August 4 job fairs, described as a “culmination” of the “Back to Work Louisiana” campaign, will take place at event centers in eight cities:
- Alexandria, Randolph Riverfront Center, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- Baton Rouge, Raising Cane’s River Center, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- Houma, Municipal Auditorium, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
- Lafayette, Cajun Dome, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
- Lake Charles, Civic Center, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- Monroe, Monroe Civic Center, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- New Orleans, Ernest Morial Convention Center, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
- Shreveport, Shreveport Convention Center, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
The LWC also encouraged people to attend free webinars on networking and other job seeking skills hosted by the career services provider Kuder.
The “Back to Work Louisiana” campaign launched last month shortly after Governor John Bel Edwards signed a bill that will end the federally-funded additional $300 weekly enhanced unemployment benefits on July 31 but raise the maximum weekly unemployment benefit paid by the state by $28 per week starting in 2022.
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