The Lafayette area is expected to add over 2,000 jobs in each of the next two years despite an offshore drilling industry weighed down by tariffs.
The Louisiana Economic Forecast, an annual report published by economist Loren Scott, cites growth from four of the region’s top six companies and predicts an additional 2,500 jobs next year and another 2,800 in 2027 to push the region’s total to 192,400 jobs, which would be an all-time high for the region.
Yet Scott cites struggles of the “moribund drilling activity” in the Gulf of Mexico and SafeSource Direct’s recent suspension of operations as being a drag on the economy.
Those numbers do not include activity in Iberia Parish, which was removed from the Lafayette MSA but may be the “most vigorously active” among the state’s 27 rural parishes, Scott said.
Scott will make his annual presentation Thursday morning at Le Pavillon, 1913 Kaliste Saloom Road.
The projected job growth is a continued pattern of gains since falling to about 170,000 in 2021, data shows. It is also expected to surpass the 2014 mark, a time during the height of the fracking boom before the oil market crashed in 2015 and 2016.
The Lafayette MSA is the second-most dependent of all of the state’s MSAs on the oil and gas industry. The price of oil has been steady the last three years, bouncing between $60 and $70 a barrel, but the higher tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper — all heavy components for offshore exploration — have dropped the rig count down to only 10 as of July, Scott said.
Relief will be coming, he said, as the Trump administration reversed Biden-era policies on drilling in the Gulf that dropped lease sales down 70%. Total rig count has yet to recover from the market crash in 2015 and 2016.
The area also lost 541 jobs when SafeSource Direct suspended operations in August. The company is expected to wind down operations later this month.
Notes on the big employers in the area include:
Stuller, now at 1,550 employees and the largest private employer not related to health care, is running out of room at its headquarters in south Lafayette.
CGI is now at 750 employees and hopes to add another 80 if contracts fall into place. It has begun some contingency hiring with salaries in the $75,000-$100,000 range.
VieMed, now at 430 jobs in Lafayette and 1,121 across the country, is projecting 11% growth over the next two years.
LHC Group continues to lower its job total since being bought by UnitedHealth. After being at 936 in Lafayette two years ago, it now employs 738.