What was once a difficult benchmark for Louisiana’s job market could become the new normal, according to an analysis from Leaders for a Better Louisiana.
Louisiana employment has topped 2 million jobs for seven consecutive months, marking the longest stretch above that threshold in the state’s history, the report says.
The state first eclipsed 2 million jobs in 2015, but remained above that level for only four months before slipping back below it for nearly a decade.
Adam Knapp, CEO of Leaders for a Better Louisiana, says the data underscores how slow the state’s employment growth had been over the past 10 years.
“It kind of dipped below [2 million jobs] and then COVID hit,” he says. “We had a big decline, and it took a very gradual recovery of our jobs after COVID. Where many states rocketed past their pre-COVID numbers, it took us a little bit longer to get back to our pre-COVID numbers.”
Knapp says Louisiana’s outlook for 2026 is strong, with continued hiring and business expansion expected as a result of increased project activity in 2025 and major announcements for future developments across the state.
In September, Leaders for a Better Louisiana analyzed six megaprojects expected to drive a surge in industrial construction. Labor demand tied to those projects is projected to peak at roughly 20,500 workers in late 2026 and early 2027—about 24% of Louisiana’s industrial construction workforce.
The projects include Meta’s AI data center in Richland Parish; Entergy’s power center supporting the Meta facility; Woodside LNG in Calcasieu Parish; Venture Global’s CP2 LNG project in Cameron Parish; CF Industries in Ascension Parish; and Hyundai Steel in Ascension Parish.
Additional projects announced in the Capital Region and elsewhere in the state are also expected to contribute to job growth.
“It’s just fascinating to see the spread of activity across the state, which is what gives us a sense that this is going to be a pretty sustained growth position for the rest of this year, kind of leading into maybe 2027,” Knapp says.
Louisiana’s employment total could soon surpass the all-time record of 2,007,200 nonfarm jobs set in December 2014. The state is currently about 2,000 jobs shy of that mark.
