The recent Wall Street Journal ranking of metropolitan job markets across the U.S. was a big black eye for Baton Rouge, which fell a whopping 104 slots among cities of less than 1 million people, dropping from 113 in 2019 to 217 in 2020.
That puts the Red Stick squarely between Lake Havasu City-Kingman, Arizona, an area of roughly 53,000 known for recreational fishing, and East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, a borough in the Poconos with a population of less than 12,000.
Remember that the next time someone talks about our peer cities, writes Business Report Editor Stephanie Riegel in her new opinion piece.
Unlike some lists, which measure quality of life indicators like graduation rates and health outcomes, the Wall Street Journal rankings were based strictly on employment numbers.
Specifically, the study looked at five metrics: unemployment (4.2%), labor force participation (66%), job growth (.5%), labor force growth (-.1%) and wage growth (2.9%).
To be fair, though Baton Rouge’s performance was pitiful, the precipitous decline came about largely as the result of two factors, at least one of which was somewhat anomalous.
But while there are legitimate excuses for performing so poorly on the Wall Street Journal list including a plant closing and a lull in construction jobs, there is one central takeaway that cannot be ignored: namely, the Capital Region’s economy remains firmly rooted in the industrial and manufacturing sector, with nothing to fall back on.
An equally depressing takeaway from the rankings was that the cities that finished first and second on the list were two other Southern state capitals: Austin and Nashville.
Not so long ago, just as far back as 50 years, these truly were our peer cities, Riegel writes. Now they have far surpassed Baton Rouge in many areas, and it’s not rocket science to see how or why they were able to do so.
Read Riegel’s full column, in which she looks at how these other cities managed to turn investments into growth and where Baton Rouge fell behind. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com.
