Developments are springing up all over the Baton Rouge area, especially around campus and downtown, creating more commercial activity and more job opportunities.
Steve Levy, a 22-year-old manager at Pluckers, recognized the potential of starting a business near a major university.
“I’ve been to other campuses, and I see retail after retail,” Levy said. “People are finally starting to develop campus, and with 30,000 students, why not?”
Levy is not the only young entrepreneur who sees dollar signs in an otherwise slow economic surrounding.
Tom Tran, the 27-year-old co-owner of Tropical Cafe, said he started his business near campus because it is the hottest location and business opportunities are growing here.
“I’m not going to lie, this is where the money’s at,” Tran said.
But economics professor Dek Terrell said this does not necessarily mean a booming economy for future University graduates.
“The latest employment records said [Baton Rouge] is doing better, but employment is still down,” Terrell said. “We’re seeing an expansion of service sectors, but on the other hand we’re losing chemical jobs, which are higher paying.”
He said new developments will increase the need for workers, such as in the food service and retail industries, giving an increase in job opportunities, but other than jobs at the managerial level, there will not be many job openings for students looking for high income jobs.
“It wouldn’t be a great career for a degree,” Terrell said. “We’re seeing more students going to Houston and Atlanta to get those higher paying jobs.”
He said students around campus and downtown might see more activity right now, but part of that is because of the declines in the industrial market. According to Terrell, an economic forecast of Baton Rouge showed future employment as reaching slightly higher levels or staying flat, and the commercial boom will not make much of a difference.
The slow decline in chemical opportunities in the state, Terrell said, are partly because of EPA restrictions and competition with foreign oil distributors, such as Europe and Eastern Asia.
“The restrictions greatly restrict the refinery industry from expanding, so there has been a loss in jobs,” he said. “We also have high input costs for manufacturing and transporting natural gas in North America, and supply hasn’t kept up with demand.”
Terrell said students are finding alternatives for higher paying jobs in places that have more headquarters and firms, but measures are taken to build the University and Baton Rouge into a city with more opportunities.
Terrell said the chancellor has published an initiative to mimic that of Austin. The initiative, as written in the University’s Strategic Plan, calls for the University to “be a leader in the intellectual, cultural, social and economic advancement of the state” in order to “attract the brightest students from Louisiana and around the nation.”
“We want to be competitive in that way, but only time will tell how successful those initiatives will be,” Terrell said.