The Louisiana State University of Alexandria College of Business has released the latest issue of the CENLA Economic Dashboard.
It includes Rapides Parish sales tax revenue for April which represents sales activity in March, initial unemployment claims and unemployment rates, and local building permit activity. Dr. Randall Dupont, dean of the LSUA College of Business, describes the economic data as encouraging considering approximately a third of March was under the governor’s stay-at-home order.
Consumer spending which is represented by sales tax revenue and residential and commercial construction represented by building permit activity were higher than expected. Another bright spot was vehicle sales with April tax revenues showing a 45% increase in March and 19% year to date. Hotel occupancy was hardest hit with April occupancy tax revenues reflecting a 27% decline in March activity over the previous month and a 61% decline compared to a year ago. These and other key takeaways are listed in the Dashboard.
“We all know the full impact of COVID-19 will continue to unfold as the April 2020 data is received and reported by Dr. Dupont. The CENLA Economic Dashboard will continue to be a great source of fact-based data important to COVID-19 regional recovery. We are also committed to working very closely with the CENLA business community, matching our degree programs with the emerging post-Covid-19 workforce demands anticipated for our region,” said Dr. Paul Coreil, LSUA chancellor.