The word “progress” naturally makes us think about what is going right. New investments. New construction. New jobs. Expanding businesses. Bigger opportunities.
And there is certainly plenty worth celebrating in Shreveport-Bossier right now. This year’s Progress edition documents billions of dollars in planned investment, new manufacturing activity, a growing aviation maintenance operation, increased freight movement at the Port of Caddo-Bossier, and major projects across healthcare, higher education, entertainment and technology. Those are significant developments, and they deserve to be recognized.
But Progress has never been meant to simply pat ourselves on the back. Real progress requires us to look honestly at the whole picture, including the areas where the numbers are encouraging and the places where they remind us how much work remains.
Construction employment in Shreveport-Bossier was up more than 12 percent year over year in August. Manufacturing was up more than 5 percent, and education and health services also showed growth. At the same time, overall payroll employment increased just 0.3 percent. Trade, transportation and utilities declined. Leisure and hospitality declined. Government employment declined.
Even the unemployment numbers require a closer look. The unemployment rate fell from 4.5 percent to 4.2 percent, but the regional labor force also became smaller, and there were fewer employed residents than a year earlier. That is an important distinction, because a lower unemployment rate does not automatically mean more people are working.
We can have enormous projects on the drawing board and still face serious questions about workforce participation, population, infrastructure, education, housing and quality of life. We can celebrate Amazon’s planned $18 billion investment while recognizing that projected jobs are not the same thing as people working today. We can celebrate record freight activity at the Port while acknowledging how important reliable Red River navigation remains. And we can welcome new flights at Shreveport Regional Airport and the 127 people working at SkyWest’s maintenance base while also recognizing that passenger traffic has been running below last year’s pace.
None of those realities diminish the good news. They make the picture more complete.
Progress is not measured only by announcements. It is measured by what happens after the announcement. Did construction begin? Did the facility open? Were people hired? Did those jobs remain? Did local companies benefit? Did our workforce grow? Did families decide this was a place where they wanted to build their future?
Those are harder questions than simply counting ribbon cuttings, but they are the questions that ultimately determine whether this moment becomes transformational.
Several of the leaders featured in this edition make essentially the same point from different perspectives. Economic growth requires infrastructure, housing, workforce development, public safety, strong neighborhoods, education and quality of place. It requires communities where talented people actually want to live, work and raise a family.
No single company, government agency, college or economic development organization can accomplish all of that alone. It takes all of us, which is why I believe a publication called Progress has an obligation to do more than celebrate success. We also have to identify the gaps between where we are and where we want to be.
There is tremendous opportunity in Northwest Louisiana right now, and we should be excited about it. But optimism and honesty are not opposites. Lasting progress requires both.
We should celebrate every legitimate win, then ask the next question: What do we have to do to build on it?
Because progress is not simply something we announce. It is something we prove.
David A. Specht Jr. is publisher and editor of BIZ. and President of Specht Newspapers, Inc.