Economist Dr. Loren Scott
Since 2006 rural areas in Louisiana continue to lose nonfarm jobs and economist Dr. Loren Scott predicts the trend will continue into 2025 among the 29 parishes outside the state’s nine metropolitan areas. He predicts 1,000 jobs will be lost next year and in 2024, 1,700 job losses.
“There are some things that are going on, but behind the scenes, there is just this general movement of people out of rural areas into metropolitan areas and this is happening nationwide,” said Scott.
Scott says however there are rural areas of the state, especially in Louisiana that are seeing a boon in jobs, specifically those related to the timber industry.
“Because there are some problems up in the Canadian wood area so somebody has to fill that void and we have a good forest products area and that’s one of the positive things,” said Scott.
In addition to timber, Scott noted the use of graphite from Vidalia that’s supplying battery companies.
Even though the job decline is around a percentage point for rural areas of the state Scott admits it could be worse if it wasn’t for the ongoing lumber…
“Then there’s the Syrah project going on, Strategic Biofuels doing some stuff out in the rural areas. It’s hard to overcome that kind of general downward trend that’s happening because of population shifts,” said Scott.
And with a recession looming in 2023, Scott expects mainly the southern half of the state to see job growth compared to the rest of the country. He says the industrial sector will see growth and there will be an influx of European companies due to the lower cost of natural gas in Louisiana.
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