Landry effect continues, chagrining leftists

Perhaps more fun than watching the Republican Gov. Jeff Landry effect take hold is how those invested in the rather opposite agenda of his predecessor try to deflect from that.

On the heels of data centers announcing their intended arrivals in Louisiana – with one firm explicitly said to have begun making the locational move after Landry took over from the departing Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards – has come further news that the change in administrations has jumpstarted economic development in the state. After losing population in the last three years, 2024 apparently saw a small gain and along with it more jobs.

In fact, losing population was a major theme throughout Edwards’ two terms. When he left office, about 120,000 fewer people lived in the state than when he entered it. That resulted in essentially zero job growth even as the unemployment rate slid downwards to a modern low. But that was deceptive: it went down because the labor force participation rate fell to a nearly half-century low (Wuhan coronavirus pandemic excluded) as increased government benefits that Edwards backed kicked in, meaning a higher proportion of the work-able po

pulation exited the workforce, joining those discouraged who couldn’t find a job.

The increased population came with an increase of jobs as well, 20,000 more, and the labor force kept pace as the rate has generally begin to move higher (typically, it moves idiosyncratically month-to-month but over time a trend up or down usually emerges). The brightening picture has caused the unemployment rate to tick upwards as more people rejoin the labor force.

A revived Louisiana economy has come not really from policy changes yet – those such as tax cuts and benefit reductions were enacted only in the last six months or so with almost all taking effect starting tomorrow and beyond – but from confidence in policy-makers. During the Edwards years, it was clear his main policy goal was to grow government and hoped the economy would follow. By contrast, Landry and a Republican legislature freed from Edwards have shown they want government to facilitate rather than instigate economic development, which has not gone unnoticed in the business world.

Hence on balance fewer residents leaving and higher in-migration to boost numbers. But some don’t want to admit this, most notoriously the Baton Rouge Advocate, which throughout Edwards’ terms provided cheerleading for his policies and now has had a time of it trying not to admit those policies failed by contrast as economically things now perk up.

Such was the case with a story last week about the new population numbers. In this, it almost avoids entirely admitting the population rise, instead emphasizing that more residents moving away than other states’ residents moving to Louisiana occurred in 2024 and that the increase came about because the flow of international non-citizens into the state well exceeded the outbound flow.

But a gain is a gain, and even if the large majority of the international newcomers almost certainly are illegally in the country, the fact is that illegal immigrant job-hunting patterns are a leading indicator of presumed economic vitality: they cross over and head to where they think/hear of jobs being available. And this didn’t appear to be the case during the Edwards years in any event.

In fact, the piece only obliquely avers that the Edwards era, with policy and a resonant general attitude that business and higher-earning individuals were piñatas to bust to finance government wealth redistribution, represented troublesome population trends when it delivered as an afterthought “It’s been almost a decade since the difference between the number of people moving out and the number who moved in was that low,” in reference to non-international migration trends. Otherwise, it studiously avoids making any such reference to trends visible throughout the Edwards era, and makes no attempt to inform that the progress witnessed in 2024 came during the Landry Administration.

Naturally. Imagine the consternation to follow if the trend continues through 2025 that provides further invalidation of the political left’s agenda in Louisiana and vindication to an electorate that finally woke up and saw what was being done to those who hadn’t leave already, fed up with a now blessedly ex-governor who put ideology before people.