Mississippi and Louisiana Job Growth Lags

An economist says Louisiana and Mississippi may fight it out for last place in job growth among the southeastern states over the next two years.

During the Gulf South Bank Conference yesterday in New Orleans, LSU economist Loren Scott predicted job growth in Mississippi of one percent, per year through 2006 and in Louisiana of point-nine percent this year and one-point-two percent in 2006. That would mean 23-thousand-800 new jobs in Mississippi by the end of 2006 and 40-thousand-100 new jobs in Louisiana.

Scott says the regional leaders will be Alabama, where employment is expected to grow by two-point-five percent through 2006, and Arkansas, where a one-point-four percent employment growth is forecast through 2006.

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