Baton Rouge Economic Forecast - 2024 - 2025

Loren Scott, a local and very respected economist, has released his economic forecast for the Baton Rouge area for 2024 - 2025 and it shows to be a very strong forecast for the Greater Baton Rouge Region!

Baton Rouge's unemployment rate is already at historical lows at around 3.1%. Loren is forecasting Baton Rouge to generate 11,500 jobs in 2024 followed up by 13,000 jobs in 2025. That reflects an average job growth rate of around 3%!

There are several drivers for this job growth with the primary one being continued plant expansions and new plant construction projects. Loren estimates that there is currently $12 billion dollars in plant construction/expansion projects already underway with another $19 billion that have been announced and are awaiting final funding commitments.

He noted that Turner Industries, which is a large construction/project management firm, has already hired close to 3,000 new workers to support their local construction projects. Anecdotally, I understand that local engineering firms cannot hire enough engineers to handle all the plant related work that is currently underway & planned for the future.

Additional drivers of employment growth in the Baton Rouge area are the Amazon Fulfillment Distribution Center that is scheduled to open mid-2024 and will employ around 2,000 people. And local companies such as Community Coffee, Capitol Produce & Blue Runner beans are expanding their facilities with capital projects and will be increasing hiring as well!

Our economy in Baton Rouge is charging ahead and because of the job growth, will continue to put stress on the local housing market. There are not enough houses to buy and/or rental properties to house this influx of workers into our area. I do not expect housing prices to fall despite continued elevated interest rates. In fact, housing prices will continue to rise and there will continue to be investment opportunities in multi-family due to the increased number of workers now in our market. We are pulling workers from outside the Baton Rouge area in order to fill all these jobs and they've got to have a place to live.

Are you interested in buying or selling a home? I'd love to visit with you, no pressure! Call, text or e-mail me.

Interested in searching online for available homes in the Baton Rouge market? Click on this link to go to my website. It will require you to register to fully browse, but your contact information will come directly to me. You can search freely on my site and contact me when you are ready to speak!