Louisiana continues to fail when it comes to produce enough skilled workers for the manufacturing and logistics industries, according to the latest annual Manufacturing & Logistics Report Card from Ball State University.
The report card has been prepared by Ball State’s Center for Business and Economic Research annually since 2008. And since then, Louisiana has never received an overall grade better than C+ (2009) for the overall success of its industries, and has never received anything but an F in the human capital category. In this year’s report, Louisiana’s overall grade is a C—the same grade it has earned every year in the report besides 2009. Aside from human capital, other categories each state is graded on in the report include tax climate, worker benefit costs, and production and innovation.
“Louisiana maintained C grade in manufacturing industry, tax climate, and expected fiscal liability gap categories, and F grade in human capital category,” notes CBER Director Michael Hicks in a prepared statement. “In a sector where people matter more than ever, Louisiana is not producing the type of educated productive workforce employers need.”
A bright spot for Louisiana in this year’s report card comes in the overall health of its logistics industry, which includes the capacity to move and store goods. The state’s grade in this category increased to a B+ in the 2015 report, up from a B last year.
See the complete report card, which includes grades for all states.
