William Short
October 12, 2010
Trial in Gulf oil spill cases postponed
October 14, 2010
The Houma Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is projected to lose 1,500 jobs in 2011 and 800 jobs in 2012, a decline of 1.7 percent and 0.5 percent respectively, according to an annual projection report released by a group of economic professors.
The projected decline in employment has the Houma MSA finishing seventh out of the eight Louisiana MSAs despite relatively high-energy prices. The projections have Houma ahead of only Lafayette, another economy based on oil extraction.
Loren C. Scott, professor emeritus in economics at LSU, presented the “Louisiana Economic Outlook: 2011 and 2012” Thursday at a luncheon at the Cypress Columns in Gray.
“I would like to be optimistic, but I’m just really worried,” Scott said. “But it’s not your fault.”
Who is at fault? According to Scott and his team’s findings, the lawmakers in Washington, D.C., led by President Barack Obama himself, have put the Houma MSA, which is made up of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, in danger to lose jobs.
Scott blamed Houma’s future problems on a weak extraction sector. Whether it is through a legal or an effective moratorium on drilling or proposed tax increases set for the oil industry for the 2011-12 period, the oil-based bayou area economy is set to take a hit.
Seventeen percent of the Gross State Product has been adversely affected by the moratorium. It costs between $250,000 and $500,000 daily for companies to have ships in the Gulf of Mexico, and that is money wasted if companies can’t drill for oil.
Diamond Drilling and Transocean have each moved two ships out of the Gulf of Mexico, and 33 rigs are impacted, affecting 8,000 direct jobs. Scott said the on-shore industry multiplier is four secondary jobs for every direct job, meaning more than 30,000-35,000 jobs are being impacted by the moratorium.
“Actually, if the moratorium extends much beyond late fall of 2010, we expect the Houma MSA to shed an additional 6,000 jobs,” the report reads.
But all is not lost for the Houma MSA. Due to the shipbuilding sector, the projected blow should be softened, Scott said.
Edison Chouest company officials reported that they intend to hire about 1,000 people for their new LaShip yard in Terrebonne Parish, and they have been awarded a contract to build a $150 million icebreaker with Shell.
Bollinger Shipyards plans to add 700-800 jobs if they land a contract with the Navy for building a littoral combat ship and they already have a backlog of work stemming from a $1.5 billion, 34-boat contract with the Coast Guard.
“You people have been through some wild swings before and you can get through this,” Scott said, urging those in attendance to do what they can to fight lawmakers in Washington D.C.
As for the state of Louisiana as a whole, the report projects almost no change in job outlook. They projected the state would add 3,100 jobs in 2011 and 7,500 jobs in 2012, an increase of 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.
Scott commended the state’s ability to survive the “Great Recession.” Louisiana did not lose its first job until January 2009 and only fell 2 percent.
The national economy is slowly emerging from the recession, but it is hampered by the taxes included in the new national health care policy and other “anti-growth, anti-job legislation” imposed by the Obama Administration, Scott said.
Loren Scott, professor emeritus in economics at LSU, and his staff of economists project the Houma Metropolitan Statistical Area to lose 1,500 jobs in 2011.PHOTO COURTESY OF U.S. COAST GUARD
