Louisiana

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, affecting retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base statewide.
• Elevated poverty: At 18.9%, the rate supports federal funding narratives across distressed counties (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 8.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 299,583 workers (25.7% of the tracked sectors), at an average wage of $58,103.
• Economic scale: State GDP of $329.2B (2024).

• Top specialization: Water Transportation concentrates at 11.66x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base across the state.
• Attraction whitespace: 8 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.6x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 14.4% vacancy rate; potential redevelopment opportunity.

Louisiana shows strong potential for water transportation attraction, with a 11.66x concentration and 9,895 jobs in this sub-sector.

Cluster depth across water transportation, petroleum and coal products manufacturing, and support activities for mining creates supply-chain attraction leverage, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.