Louisiana Braces for Major Job Cuts

BATON ROUGE, LA -- About 450 workers at the state Department of Health and Hospitals will lose their jobs because of budget cuts, the head of the agency announced Wednesday.
“The next 24 months are going to be very difficult,” DHH Secretary Alan Levine said during a news conference in downtown Baton Rouge.
Most of the layoffs are in the Office of Citizens with Developmental Disabilities, which will lose more than 400 positions.Overall, DHH is eliminating 445 filled positions and 416 vacant positions.
The job loss within the Office of Citizens with Developmental Disabilities is high because the state is moving residents from state-run group homes into private facilities, eliminating the need for employees, Levine said.