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For many small businesses, survival contingent on holiday sales
Small businesses have a lot riding on this year's holiday season.
Nearly one in four of the 550 business-owner respondents to a recent survey from...
Louisiana ranks 49th on “prosperity index”
Louisiana ranks 49th in the nation for “overall prosperity” among states and Washington, D.C., according to a new report.
According to the American Dream Prosperity...
US initial jobless claims drop slightly
Filings for U.S. unemployment insurance fell slightly last week and remained near historically low levels amid a still-tight labor market, The Wall Street Journal...
Income rose 6% in the Capital Region during 2021, but trailed most metros
The per capita personal income in the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical area was $56,396 in 2021, a rise of 6.2% from the previous year,...
Tech layoffs don’t guarantee job cuts imminent in other sectors
Tech company layoffs are not expected to prompt a tsunami of job losses in other industries, The Washington Post (subscription) reports, but they are...
US employers added 261,000 jobs in October
America’s employers kept hiring briskly in October, adding a substantial 261,000 positions, a sign that as Election Day nears, the economy remains a picture...
US weekly initial jobless claims dip slightly
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, decreased slightly to a seasonally adjusted 217,000 last week from a revised 218,000 the week before, the...
Capital Region has highest rate of underwater mortgages in the nation
Capital Region homeowners are significantly more likely to be underwater on their mortgages than homeowners nationwide and less likely to have significant equity, according...
What eight people who quit their jobs are doing one year later
The Great Resignation neared its peak one year ago when more than 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs. Some left for higher pay, while...
BRAC canvas trip: How Greenville transformed from a textiles capital to an auto hub
For more than a century, Greenville, South Carolina, and its surrounding counties formed what was considered the textiles capital of the world. Then globalization...
Louisiana ranks in middle of pack for business climate
Louisiana has the 25th-best business climate among states, according to Site Selection magazine’s rankings for 2022.
Part of the index used to determine the ranking...
As food prices soar, so are companies’ profits
A year ago, a bag of potato chips at the grocery store cost an average of $5.05, while a dozen eggs that could have...
Fed expected to announce another hefty hike in interest rates today
Looming over the Federal Reserve meeting that ends today is a question of intense interest: Just how high will the Fed’s inflation-fighters raise interest...
Seeking economic diversification
Though the industrial sector will continue powering the Capital Region economy, there are promising opportunities in the health care and research technology markets.
Prepare for more pain as Fed expected to raise rates again this week
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell bluntly warned in a speech last month that the Fed’s drive to curb inflation by aggressively raising interest rates...
Baton Rouge added 1,900 jobs in August from July
Baton Rouge added 1,900 jobs in August, according to seasonally adjusted data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, bringing the total number...
Weekly initial jobless claims fall to lowest level since May
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell again last week to a four-month low even as the Federal Reserve continues its aggressive interest rate cuts to bring inflation under control.
Inflation slows for second month in a row but remains high at 8.3%
U.S. inflation slowed for a second straight month on a sharp fall in gas prices, yet excluding energy most other items got more expensive...
Would eliminating state income tax make Louisiana more competitive?
State Rep. Richard Nelson, R-Mandeville, believes dropping Louisiana’s income tax would put the state on a path to compete with the booming economies of Florida and Texas, two states that don't tax personal income.
Louisiana median worker pay higher than several other Southeastern states
Median worker pay has risen 9% in Louisiana since December 2020, with the median annual salary sitting at $53,200 in August, according to the...
