An uptick in construction activity brought on by massive investments in steel mills, data centers and a spaceport is expected to bring 55,000 new jobs to Louisiana over the next two years. At least that’s the word from the eternally optimistic Loren Scott, whose annual Louisiana Economic Forecast was released on Tuesday. As The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Tim Boone reports, the Baton Rouge region leads the way in total new jobs, while the Lake Charles region expects to add the most jobs on a percentage basis.
A continued decline in convention business post-COVID and the completion of Venture Global’s Plaquemines Parish LNG terminal will cause job growth to slow down in metro New Orleans. The Crescent City is forecast to add 6,200 jobs over the next two years, a 1.3% growth rate. That would rank New Orleans ninth in terms of growth among the state’s 10 metro areas.
But as The Data Center reported last spring, big private investments don’t always deliver for local communities. A decade ago it was an energy boom, led by new LNG terminals, that was supposed to usher in a new age of prosperity. Instead Louisiana’s job growth continued to trail the rest of the country, while environmental and health conditions worsened.
A decade ago, Southeast Louisiana stood on the threshold of what appeared to be a generational economic boom. Billions in petrochemical and manufacturing investment promised tens of thousands of job openings. That promise has gone unfulfilled. While capital and billions of dollars in tax subsidies did flow into refineries, chemical plants, and LNG facilities, job growth has failed to materialize.5
SNAP for veterans
Nearly 1 in 10 Louisiana veterans (9.4%) live in a household that receives federal food assistance – one of the highest rates in the country (the national rate is 6.9%). Nearly one million veterans are estimated to face food insecurity. A new report from the Government Accountability Office – a congressional watchdog agency – says the federal government is doing a poor job of reaching out to veterans to help them navigate the bureaucratic maze around the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
(S)elected stakeholders we interviewed reported that veterans’ misconceptions about SNAP and difficulties with the application process hinder outreach efforts. USDA has a webpage for military families and veterans that includes basic information about SNAP, but it lacks more detailed resources such as a handout or talking points dispelling SNAP myths, including whether veterans receiving VA benefits are eligible for SNAP. … In addition, USDA’s SNAP eligibility website includes outdated information about whether veterans are subject to time-limited SNAP benefits if they do not meet work requirements.
“De-naturalization” in Livingston Parish
The Trump administration is trying to revoke the citizenship of a 68-year-old gas station owner in Livingston Parish, claiming he lied on his naturalization application several decades ago. It’s the first time the tactic has been tried in Louisiana’s Middle District, and is part of the administration’s push for stricter immigration enforcement. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Gigi Liman reports:
Once a popular tool used against communists and anarchists during the Red Scare, denaturalization attempts have seldom been used since 1967. The practice has largely been reserved for former war criminals and perpetrators of human rights abuses who concealed their past activity on immigration and citizenship forms. … In 2025, the Justice Department sent a memo to its civil division urging attorneys to prioritize denaturalizations and expanding the categories of naturalized citizens who should be considered the subject of such actions.
Making sense of the job market
Unemployment in the United States remains low by historical standards, yet polls consistently show many Americans are pessimistic about the overall economy. Anxiety about the job market has left many people reluctant to leave their current positions. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta sifts through the data in a new blog post.
(R)ising anxiety about the labor market among workers has led to lower quits and lower job-to-job mobility, amplifying the decline in churn because of weakening labor demand. For this reason, the current US labor market is best described as “low-hire-low-fire-low-quit.” Although the labor market has proven to be surprisingly resilient in recent years, a low-churn environment in which many workers are reluctant to switch jobs is unlikely to be a sign of a fully healthy labor market.
Number of the Day
67,000 – Number of active Louisiana voters who had their status switched to “inactive” last week due to a human error. The Secretary of State says it is fixing the problem. (Source: Louisiana Illuminator)