THE CENTER SQUARE — The region once known as the sunny side of Louisville has never looked brighter. That's according to an economic report issued March 6 by an Indiana University Southeast forecaster.
The report, produced by Dr. Uric Dufrene for One Southern Indiana, noted the five Southern Indiana counties in the Louisville metro area created more than 112,800 jobs as of the third quarter of 2022. That's a new record, breaking the record set in the second quarter of last year by nearly 1,000 jobs.
That record-setting figure was fueled by businesses in Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Washington and Scott counties saw their employee rolls grow by more than 4,100 positions during the third quarter. Dufrene said that was the biggest increase since the COVID-19 pandemic, aside from one quarter with numerous reopenings after restrictions were lifted. It's also the second-biggest quarter over a more than 20-year span.
Dufrene's report stated that the 4% growth in the Southern Indiana counties compares to a near-zero increase nationally for the same period.
"One of the reasons why the region continues to see strong job gains is due to growth in the labor force," wrote Dufrene, who serves as the interim executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at IUS. "Unlike labor force trends that we observed nationally over 2022, the Southern Indiana labor force did see positive traction over the year."
The hospitality and food services sectors led the way in the third quarter, accounting for more than a third of the new jobs. In addition, employment for those businesses now exceeds pre-pandemic levels by about 1,000 jobs.
But it's not just the job numbers that are growing. Employees now working in that sector are earning $443 per week. That's 40% higher than hospitality workers received during the third quarter of 2019.
"This has implications for pricing, profitability, and labor," Dufrene indicated.
Two other sectors saw strong growth during the third quarter last year. Administrative, support, waste management and remedial services grew by 780 jobs, although Dufrene said many of those positions may be temporary. And the region's manufacturing base added nearly 600 jobs.
The region's manufacturing workers earned $1,188 a week during the third quarter, about 5% lower than they received during the fourth quarter of 2021.
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