Economist Dr. Loren Scott
It’s Labor Day; the federal holiday recognizing those that work hard for a living with a day of rest. With that in mind, what is the “labor picture” in Louisiana? We asked LSU economist emeritus Dr. Loren Scott, who says the state is still suffering worker shortages due to the pandemic.
“We’re 49th among the states in recovering. We’ve only recovered about 69-percent of the 283-thousand jobs that we lost when the Covid shut down,” Scott says.
Scott says there are shortages of available employees in almost all sectors of business and industry. He says the pandemic’s effects were badly aggravated by three hurricanes and a severe winter storm – all in 2020 and 2021.
“So those natural disasters have really set us back in terms of recovery. It’s been especially harsh on the Houma area, and on the Lake Charles area.”
State officials have recently touted low unemployment figures as signs of a healthy labor market, but Scott says those numbers do not give a clear picture.
“What you really need to look at is the employment right now; what is happening to the employment side, because the unemployment rate can go down simply because people have quit looking for work.”
Scott says Louisiana has a huge number of available jobs, and employers anxious to hire. Scott annual Louisiana Economic Outlook report is due in October.
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