Pathways to Prosperity: Louisiana

Allison Plyer, Taylor Savell, and Anissa Hyde

Published: Feb 12, 2025

Since 2000, Louisiana has had among the lowest job growth rates in the nation at 2 percent. On top of this, Louisiana has experienced some of the harshest impacts from an increasing number of extreme weather events. But Louisiana has the opportunity to build up the state’s resiliency against extreme weather events, preserve our culture and grow our economy, if we carefully deploy federal and state funds and taxpayer dollars. This report provides 24 one-pagers with easily accessible data that decisionmakers can use to gain consensus and set location-specific priorities, creating opportunities to secure our competitiveness on the national and global stage.

Introduction

Louisiana’s economy is currently dominated by legacy industries like oil & gas, shipping, and tourism that maximize profitability through efficiencies — in other words, they’re hiring fewer workers. Reversing slow job growth will require leaders to execute on an aggressive new vision of the future to secure significant market share in new growth industries. At the same time, Louisiana must strategically invest in its capacity to withstand and respond to shocks and disasters.

As leaders come together to deploy federal and state funds and taxpayer dollars, Pathways to Prosperity: Louisiana provides easily accessible data and analysis that can support a shared, evidence-based understanding of state-specific impacts and opportunities. These 24 one-pagers represent a comprehensive set of high-demand indicators that leaders can use to gain consensus, set priorities and forge partnerships. The Data Center partnered with the National Conference on Citizenship to assemble and analyze this unique set of metrics to provide an overview of extreme weather shocks, adaptation activities, economic opportunities, and civic health.