Today, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Louisiana will begin implementing Phase 1 of the federal government’s reopening guidelines on May 15. Pelican released the following statement from CEO Daniel Erspamer regarding the state’s plan to reopen Louisiana’s economy and ease lockdown restrictions. “For the last month, the Pelican Institute has urged Louisiana leaders to begin…
Soon after the Louisiana legislature was gaveled back into session, a tense debate began over whether the state should open on a statewide or regional basis. And while valid points are being offered on both sides of this issue, no one can deny the seriousness of the economic crisis we’re facing due to the closure…
Today, the Pelican Institute released its Get Louisiana Working Policy Solutions. This plan outlines reforms to key public policy areas to encourage the return of jobs and opportunity and to strengthen the state’s economy following the destruction resulting from COVID-19 and measures taken to address it. The Pelican Institute is also calling on state leaders…
While Gov. John Bel Edwards unexpectedly postponed the phased reopening of Louisiana’s economy to May 15, the most recently released economic data shows precisely why we need to Get Louisiana Working as soon as possible. Another 66,000 Louisianans filed unemployment claims for the week ending April 25 . While this was less than the week…
On Monday, Governor John Bel Edwards extended the statewide stay-at-home order to May 15. Meanwhile, the number of initial unemployment claims in Louisiana topped 440,000, and an estimate of our state’s real time unemployment rate sat at 27.5 percent. While the COVID-19 crisis is certainly raising valid concerns about public health, the economic damage inflicted by the…
by Daniel Erspamer, CEO of the Pelican Institute Throughout our shared history, Americans – and Louisianans, in particular – have faced down many crises, from war to drought to floods to illness. Through determination, innovation and ingenuity, a strong sense of community and patriotism, and a stubborn will to succeed, we’ve prevailed. These principles are…
On Thursday, the federal government released its plan to reopen America’s economy. The Pelican Institute’s CEO Daniel Erspamer released a statement today supporting the federal guidelines and also calling calling on state lawmakers to begin implementation of Phase 1 of this plan on May 1. See below for the full statement. “The Phase 1 guidelines…
As economic news continues to focus on the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ (BEA) recently released report further underscored Louisiana’s pre-coronavirus economic struggles. In the final quarter of 2019, the BEA report on state Gross Domestic Products (GDP) showed the Louisiana economy grew an anemic 1.1 percent, ranking 43rd in…
With a record 6.6 million Americans applying for unemployment over the last month, doubling the previous record from two weeks ago, economists were dreading the latest national report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national report is now out and found that total nonfarm employment decreased by an astounding 701,000 nonfarm workers, the largest…
While the conversations around the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 were dominating news cycles, last week’s state jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) flew under the radar. The report showed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Louisiana for February 2020 remained a sky-high 5.2 percent, more than half a point…