While they make up a small portion of the overall economy, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and wildlife are critical to many Louisiana communities in northeastern, southwestern, and south central Louisiana. Forestry production occurs mostly in the state’s hill parishes; fisheries production takes place mainly along the coast; and aquacultural production of catfish is located mainly in the northeast. The state’s top five agricultural products are cane for sugar, rice, cattle and calves, soybeans, and cotton. As the Louisiana State University (LSU) AgCenter notes, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries are a way of life in Louisiana, and families have lived on many of these farms or forestlands or in these fishing villages for generations (Richardson, 2013; LSU AgCenter, 2014). Due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September of 2005, Louisiana ultimately had a different experience of the Great Recession than most states. The devastation from the two storms displaced more than 1.4 million residents; it also closed businesses, destroyed more than 100 oil and gas platforms, and flooded power stations, reducing economic activity across the state and causing financial hardship for hundreds of thousands. From 2005 to 2006, Louisiana lost 3 percent of its population and 4 percent of its labor force. GDP growth slowed to 1 percent from 2006 to 2007 (FEMA, 2015; Kurth and Le, 2012; Scott, Richardson, and Collins, 2014; Insurance Information Institute, 2010; Governor’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness, 2015). Starting in 2006, at the same time that the national economy was beginning to falter, recovery money, which eventually totaled $19.6 billion from FEMA and $25 billion from private insurance payments, began to pour into the state just as displaced residents began to return. In addition, the Haynesville Shale deposit, the second largest natural gas field in the contiguous states, was discovered in the northwestern part of the state (FEMA, 2015; Kurth and Le, 2012; Scott, Richardson, and Collins, 2014; Insurance Information Institute, 2010; Scott, 2010; U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2011).
“Due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September of 2005, Louisiana ultimately had a different experience of the Great Recession than most states.”
The size of the state’s labor force surpassed its 2005 level by 2008. But the labor participation rate has continued to fall from its 2005 high of 63 percent, to 60 percent in 2013. At the same time, the population distribution across the state has shifted; some of the worst hit areas, and especially New Orleans, have still not regained their full population, while other areas have hit new population records (BLS, 2014; HUD, 2006).
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UNITED WAY ALICE REPORT – LOUISIANA
As a result, Louisiana had a different employment trajectory from the rest of the U.S. during the Great Recession. The state’s recent historical low unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in 2007, having fallen from 7.2 percent the year before. In 2010, unemployment rose back up to 8 percent, and then dropped only to 6.7 percent midway through 2013, which was lower than the national rate of 8 percent (BLS, 2014). These changes to Louisiana’s economy have had a mixed impact on the income and the assets of ALICE households.