Houma- The population of Jefferson Parish doesn't quite equal the number of people who hit the unemployment line in America last week. Still, first-time claims for jobless aid fell to the lowest point last week since January at 502,000.
Many economists warn that number indicates the economy is nowhere near the point where America will start to grow jobs again.
As the nation struggles to come out of the recession, Louisiana is being seen more and more as a job magnet.
One coastal Louisiana region is about to add hundreds of good-paying, permanent jobs.
On the East side of Houma at the Port of Terrebonne, construction crews build a massive $100 million shipyard. "LaShip was one of the biggest economic development wins for our state in a long time," said Governor Bobby Jindal.
LaShip, LLC will be the 6th and largest shipyard of the Edison Chouest Offshore Group, a family-owned shipbuilding company out of Galliano, LA.
In January they'll begin assembling deepwater offshore vessels at LaShip that will demand some 1,000 jobs.
"We have a strong need for skill sets, skill sets such as certified welders, pipe-fitters, ship-fitters, electricians. These are people who are in demand and will be in demand for the foreseeable future," said Roger White, director of business development for Edison Chouest.
White said those jobs come with a $55,000 a year paycheck and full benefits.
"Right now we have the fastest growing manufacturing base in the state and one of the fastest in the country. Our unemployment rate for the first half of the year was the lowest in the nation. It's still one of the lowest in the nation," said Mike Ferdinand, CEO of the Terrebonne Economic Development Authority.
Houma-Thibodaux ranks in the top 15 metro areas in the U.S. with the lowest unemployment rate at 5.1-percent, according to the U.S. Labor Dept.
"LaShip represents a new capability for Edison Chouest Offshore Group, allowing us to build much wider and larger vessels. With access through the Houma Navigational Canal, we can take our vessels not only to a domestic service, but we can service the globe from here," said White.
Chouest ships are designed and built primarily to support growing offshore oil and gas industry needs. They lease the ships and operate them. White said this new shipyard is big enough to build two ships simultaneously.
Edison Chouest Offshore has the contract with Shell Oil to build a massive, arctic icebreaker that once it's built will be longer than a football field. The question is will that vessel be built in Houma or at another Chouest shipyard in Tampa, FL?
They can build it in Houma. They just don't yet have a way to get it into the water.
"We have entered into a lease agreement with the Port (Port of Terrebonne) to lease a dry dock and we are working jointly with the Port and others to try to obtain the necessary support to have that dry dock built," said White.
The dry dock is crucial in making sure the $150 million ship doesn't get built outside of Louisiana.
"We think that to save this work for Louisiana is important. Once the oil companies head off to the Arctic regions of Alaska, this could be our next frontier for the United States. The potential reserves in Alaska and Arctic are reported to be as big as what's in the Gulf of Mexico, which is huge and if that's the case, then there will be a need for many of these types of vessels a lot larger than what we're going to build initially, and this is the yard (shipyard) that can accommodate those vessels," said White.
No matter what, a thousand new jobs are headed for Houma to support a population of existing vessels that is aging and in need of more efficiency and technology.
Since Houma-Thibodaux has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and this new shipyard requires skilled labor, Edison Chouest will probably have to attract people from outside the area. They said their challenge is housing.
The Terrebonne Economic Development Authority said the area has lost some of its housing stock due to hurricanes so there's a shortage of workforce housing.
