The Greater New Orleans Jobs Report, presented by Bank of America, is an annual report that serves as a blueprint for building a more equitable, resilient workforce. In addition to helping higher education institutions identify the fields in which their graduates can find meaningful employment, the Jobs Report also supports data-driven program development, and strengthens partnerships between education and industry. Ultimately, the report helps to connect talent with opportunity and ensures that the region’s economic growth benefits everyone.
GNO, Inc.’s internal team—including Harrison Gitz, policy and research manager; Mary Lachapelle, director of project management; Marco Tejeda-Kemp, director of talent and workforce; and Matt Wolfe, senior vice president of communications—work together closely on the months-long, collaborative process to create the report.
“The most recent edition was released on March 28, 2025, and it features 2024 data alongside comparisons to 2014,” Gitz says. “This decade-long view helps us track how the regional job market has evolved over time, highlighting long-term trends in industry growth, occupational demand and workforce composition across Greater New Orleans.”
Last year, GNO, Inc., launched the online interactive Jobs Report platform, which replaced the previous paper format. It has continued to evolve with the addition of several new features in this year’s edition. Notably, users can now access data for all industries at the two-digit NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code level.
“The dashboard also features an industry-agnostic analysis of top jobs, offering a more comprehensive view of the regional workforce,” Gitz says. “Additionally, a new Workforce Pipeline Insights tool provides analysis of talent supply and demand across Southeast Louisiana.”
By moving away from static PDFs, GNO, Inc., has made the data more dynamic, searchable and user-friendly. As a result, educators can now filter by industry or occupation, view interactive visualizations and download data specific to their programs. “These improvements help institutions and decision-makers better align curricula with real-time labor market needs,” Gitz says.
To create the report, the team at GNO, Inc., engaged stakeholders to gather feedback on previous versions, identified the data needed to reflect current workforce needs and developed the interactive dashboards. From there, the team analyzed trends and crafted conclusions designed to help educators, employers and policymakers make informed, data-driven decisions.
The report covers employment counts, projected job growth, median wages, educational requirements and demographic diversity across occupations and industries. These metrics then help decision-makers understand where workforce needs are growing, which jobs offer economic mobility and where gaps exist in training or representation.
Gitz, who leads the data analysis for the Jobs Report, including identifying workforce trends and developing the narrative and key insights, says that there are several notable findings from this year’s Jobs Report.
First, he says that healthcare remains one of the region’s fastest-growing sectors, driven by an aging population and medical innovation. Next, construction and manufacturing are stabilizing and present high-wage opportunities for middle-skill workers.
Meanwhile, management, finance and tech roles show the strongest wage growth, indicating a shift toward a knowledge-based economy. Finally, occupations like project managers, financial analysts and software developers are in high demand.
“These trends suggest that, while traditional industries are evolving, the region is increasingly diversifying its economy and creating opportunities for upward mobility across sectors,” Gitz says.
Also according to the Jobs Report, the regional job market has undergone notable shifts compared to a decade ago. For example, healthcare has grown by more than 16 percent and digital media has grown by 51.8 percent.
“There is a stronger focus on skills-based hiring, with digital literacy and project management becoming more essential across industries,” Gitz adds. “The demographic composition of the workforce is also changing, with some customer-facing sectors showing increased diversity. Overall, we’re seeing a pivot from extractive industries toward service-oriented and technology-driven fields.”
In March, GNO, Inc., hosted a launch event at the New Orleans BioInnovation Center with more than 40 stakeholders in attendance, including workforce partners, educators and business leaders. On the education side, the Jobs Report provides actionable insights to help colleges and universities align their academic programs with real labor market needs.
“Representatives from institutions such as Delgado Community College, Southeastern Louisiana University, the University of New Orleans and Tulane University expressed strong interest in using the report to help shape their workforce programs and strategic planning efforts,” Gitz says. “The interactive tool makes it easier for faculty and administrators to pinpoint high-growth occupations and adjust program capacity or curricula accordingly.”
GNO, Inc. has started to develop a series of user guides to help schools dig deeper into the numbers and strategize curriculum development. These tools will help academic leaders, career advisors, grant writers, students, job seekers, training providers, and employers better harness the information captured in the report.
Dr. Kathy Johnson, UNO president, has found the Jobs Report to be an insightful tool. “It is incredibly challenging for a single institution to gather valid data from business and industry that will enable them to nimbly adapt their curricula to meet new or emerging needs,” she says. “It also can be challenging in a university career center to provide students with real-time regional data on industry outlook, earnings and skills that are in demand. The Jobs Report does all of these things, providing each of our institutions with actionable data that help our curricula adapt to what our region needs, and helping our students to explore possible career paths.”
In particular, Dr. Johnson appreciates the section of the Jobs Report that focuses on skills in demand across an array of industries. “These skills should be amplified across our programs; ideally they should be practiced in assignments and reinforced in projects and internships,” she says. “We also might seek out opportunities to offer credentials such as certificates or minors that focus on specific skills such as digital marketing or project management.”
Currently, some of the most popular programs at UNO include biological sciences, psychology, computer science, business, engineering and education. “Many of our students in the biological sciences are ultimately planning to enter the healthcare system, and these degrees align well with industry outlook projections in the Jobs Report,” Dr. Johnson says.
Overall, this year’s report takes a more detailed look at in-demand skills, wage growth and demographic patterns than ever before. “It’s not just a snapshot—it’s a tool for shaping a more competitive, inclusive economy,” Gitz says. “We invite readers to explore the interactive platform and use it to inform how we educate, train and invest in our workforce for the future.”
View the Greater New Orleans Jobs Report at gnoinc.org/jobsreport.
