Lafayette’s economy can’t get healthy if its people aren’t healthy. The only way to slow the spread of this coronavirus is to get 80-90% of people to wear masks or to shut the everything back down again. Faced with those options, Lafayette needs to do everything in its power to get people to wear masks, not just to save lives but to save our economy.
Lafayette is facing a severe housing crisis, with thousands of people at risk of losing their homes. This crisis started before the pandemic, but the coronavirus and its impact on our economy has just added fuel to a fire that’s now threatening to rage through our community.
Projections by the St Louis Federal Reserve Bank rank the Lafayette metro area as having the 20th highest percentage of jobs at high risk of unemployment due to the coronavirus out of the 150 largest metro areas in the country.
Lafayette’s oil and gas industry is facing existential challenges that far outstrip the short-term subsidies being offered by the federal government’s coronavirus stimulus package.
Projections from local and national analysts warn that unemployment could hit 30% or more in the coming months due to the coronavirus. Lafayette is especially vulnerable because of the fall of oil and gas. Tens of thousands could be out of work by summertime.
The challenges facing Lafayette’s economy may seem overwhelming but you can help right the ship by spending money or making it, and that means more than just shopping local.
On Monday, the price of oil had its greatest one-day plunge ever, and coronavirus officially arrived in Louisiana. These developments pose threats the Lafayette economy is particularly vulnerable to.
UL Economist Gary Wagner predicts around 1% job growth for Acadiana this year, a rate that would beat statewide projections but still lag behind the nation.
GDP, personal income, employment, retail and real estate sales are all increasing, but without oil and gas recovering our economy is trending towards mediocrity.
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