After clawing its way out of economic downturn, Louisiana’s economy grew 1% in the first quarter, The USA Today Network of Louisiana reports.
The uptick is modest, but it’s an improvement over the 18-month recession in which the state’s economy contracted and hemorrhaged jobs.
“Our business owners and managers feel better about the economy in general and that’s bearing out in better economic numbers like jobs and consumer spending,” says Dawn Starns, who leads the National Federation of Independent Businesses in Louisiana and represents 4,000 businesses in the state.
The NFIB’s monthly Index of Small Business Optimism for all of the United States rose 1.6% in July to 105.2, a strong performance in which seven of 10 components in the index improved.
State-specific data is unavailable, but Starns says, “Overall, our members say business is picking up, so they’re looking to hire additional workers.”
Louisiana clawed its way out of that recession last spring after three straight months without job losses beginning in February and ending in April. Louisiana’s chief economist Greg Albrecht first reported the recession in May 2016.
Louisiana employment trough, as Albrecht calls it, bottomed out in August 2016 when the state had shed a total of 40,000 jobs from its peak. Acadiana, Houma and Shreveport were hit the hardest because of the collapse in oil prices. Peak of employment was in December 2014 when more than 2 million Louisianans were working.
“I think growth is coming because as oil prices bottomed out there is no more decline to impose on Louisiana,” Albrecht has said. “Once that happens, we’re dragged forward by the larger U.S. economy.”
