Welcome to the Louisiana Job Vacancy Survey Web page! What began as a small, regional survey has now grown into a comprehensive statewide study. The Vacancy Survey covers all eight regional labor market areas (RLMAs) in Louisiana: New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Houma, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria, Shreveport, and Monroe, as well as Statewide totals. The results will contribute to our understanding of workforce supply and demand levels, and will also help to identify areas where labor shortages exist. Additionally:
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If your firm was chosen to complete a survey, you may be representing hundreds of firms in your area or industry - that's why it's so important that we receive a response from you. Nearly 10,000 Louisiana establishments were selected to participate in the survey through a stratified random sampling design. The population of establishments was stratified by industry, region and firm size to ensure that the resulting sample was representative of the population of firms in each region/industry/firm size strata. Your response is extremely important to the study, so if there is anything we can do to make it easier for you to respond, we'd like to help.
All private establishments covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) tax laws were eligible to be included in the Job Vacancy Survey. UI tax laws do not cover most non-profit firms, nor do they cover self-employed individuals - so these types of firms were not included. Additionally, all federal, state, and local government agencies were eligible to be included in the sample, so the results from this survey are representative of all sectors covered by Unemployment Insurance tax laws.
Sampled firms receive a mail survey, which they are asked to fill out and mail back. The survey includes a series of questions about each job vacancy employers report, such as how much education and experience the opening requires, what the starting wage is, and what types of difficulties employers have faced in trying to fill the position. Firms that do not respond to the first mailing either receive a second follow-up survey, and/or may be contacted by phone as well.
Responses are due by the end of the quarter in which they are conducted.
Yes, responses are completely confidential. Your responses will be combined with others to produce statistics on hiring needs in Louisiana. No information identifying your firm or its responses will be published or released.
The results from vacancy surveys can fill a variety of needs: Job seekers can use the results to find out which occupations (or regions) have the highest demand for workers; Employers can use the information to gauge the existence of labor shortages and to plan solutions to hiring needs; Policy analysts and policy makers can use the information to determine where there are discrepancies between labor supply and demand, and to begin to consider how to address such issues of labor mismatch; and Workforce development personnel can use the information to determine where and how training dollars would be best utilized.
The results will not give you the names or addresses of employers seeking workers, nor will they list specific job openings. However, they can offer a great deal of general information about the patterns of labor demand in your area; including which fields have the most openings, how much these openings pay, and how much education and experience they require. This information can help you plan a successful job or career change. Of course, you should keep in mind that regional demand can fluctuate depending on the season, business births or deaths in the area, and/or broader economic or demographic trends. Therefore, the results from a different point in time might differ somewhat from results of another survey. Nonetheless, the results provide an accurate measure, or indicator, of labor demand in Louisiana at the time of the survey.
Results from the Job Vacancy Surveys are available at: http://www.laworks.net/qm_JVS.asp. You may view or download these results, or you may call the LWC Research & Statistics Division at (225) 342-3141 or toll-free at (888) 302-7662 to request hard copies of any of these brochures.
Beginning with the 2004 survey round, all eight major regional labor market areas (RLMAs) of Louisiana were included in the sample (New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Houma, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria, Shreveport, and Monroe) as well as statewide totals. The 2002 Job Vacancy Survey sampled Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lafayette, and Shreveport metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), and the Balance of the State (meaning all areas outside of those four metropolitan areas were pooled together as one "area" and then sampled). Thus, vacancy information is currently available for each of the eight regional areas, as well as statewide. Individual parish and sub-parish data is not publishable.
You may call the LWC Research & Statistics Division at (225) 342-3141 or toll-free at (888) 302-7662. Ask to speak to the Job Vacancy Survey Administrator.
This page was last updated on June 27, 2008.
