The Baton Rouge Area Chamber this morning unveiled an overwhelmingly positive economic forecast for the Capital Region over the next two years, saying the nine-parish area is expected to add about 9,000 jobs in 2015 and another 8,400 the year following. The forecasted growth would represent employment expansions of 2.3% in 2015 and 2.1% in 2016.
“In years past, some slides have shown negatives,” said BRAC President and CEO Adam Knapp at a breakfast event held in conjunction with Baton Rouge Entrepreneurship Week. “Nearly every indicator has positive growth, and has had historically positive growth.”
Knapp noted the September employment count of 398,800 in the Capital Region marked an all-time high. The region is currently seeing year-over-year employment gains of 2.7% this year, according to the forecast, and has already added 8,200 new jobs this year through September.
The construction sector is expected to see the largest employment growth again in 2015, Knapp said, building upon a the energy boom that has already begun boosting construction employment in the area. The forecast says 82% of the local economy experienced growth in 2014, led by the construction and business services sectors.
BRAC’s economic forecast annually includes survey results from local business owners and executives. This year’s survey shows that 88% of respondents expect local economic growth to continue, and a majority of respondents expected further employment growth.
As far as the biggest obstacles Capital Region businesses face, respondents identified workforce issues as the top concern, followed by transportation/traffic issues and education. And for the third consecutive year, health care reform/regulations was identified as the top national and international concern by respondents, followed by concerns about the slow pace of economic recovery and concerns about the federal tax code. See the complete report. —Steve Sanoski
