The Lafayette area is expected to gain over 4,000 jobs over the next two years, but that number could fluctuate depending on who wins the presidential election next month, an economist said.
The area has recovered all its jobs lost during the COVID-19 shutdown and is expected to grow its employment base by 1.3% by 2026, retired LSU economist Loren Scott said during his annual presentation Wednesday hosted by One Acadiana.
The Lafayette MSA, the state’s second-most oil dominant area and the third-largest MSA by employment, has diversified its economy in recent years but still has 5.2% of its people — three times the state average — working for oil and gas extraction and support activity companies.
Weak drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico has kept the area some 16,000 jobs below its peak level in 2014. The most recent rig count in the Gulf of Mexico was 22, nearly a third of what it was back in 2014.
The Biden administration, Scott noted, has reduced lease sales in the Gulf from two every year to one sale every other year. The hot spots for offshore drilling currently are in areas near Brazil and Guyana and in the North Sea.
“From an economic standpoint, it is a stark choice for citizens of this region,” Scott wrote. “If you believe climate change is an existential threat to mankind, your vote should definitely go to (Kamala) Harris. Strictly for the Lafayette economy, (Donald) Trump is the better bet.”
Notes on the big employers in the area include:
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