This Is the Largest Industry in Louisiana

BATON ROUGE – Pick any two cities or towns in the United States, and each will be home to people who work in very similar fields. Certain occupations in areas like education, sanitation, law enforcement, health care, and retail are common across the country as they are practical necessities.

Still, the occupational makeup of different parts of the country varies in other important ways that are influenced by the regions’ history, geography, natural resources, local laws, and demographics. These factors can have considerable economic implications and lay the foundation of a given area’s industry composition.

In Louisiana, petroleum and coal products manufacturing is the largest industry, accounting for 8.1% of the state’s total GDP of $256.9 billion. The industry’s annual economic output totals $20.8 billion, a 5.0% increase over the last five years.

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Overall employment in the industry totals about 11,400, or 0.5% of all jobs in Louisiana. Among these workers, the average annual compensation is $136,816, compared to the average of $49,286 across all occupations in the state.

All data in this story on employment and output is from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and is for 2019, the most recent year for which data is available. Data on wages is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With only a few exceptions, the largest industry in each state is real estate. As a result, we did not include the real estate sector in our analysis. We also excluded all government sectors.

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Largest industry GDP of largest industry, ($, billions) Largest industry GDP as share of all industries (%) Employment in largest industry Average annual compensation in largest industry ($)
Alabama: Ambulatory health care services 10.4 4.5 100,031 64,553
Alaska: Pipeline transportation 4.8 8.9 N/A N/A
Arizona: Ambulatory health care services 17.0 4.6 172,433 63,809
Arkansas: Ambulatory health care services 5.8 4.4 59,796 64,186
California: Computer and electronic product manufacturing 110.3 3.5 281,023 185,714
Colorado: Ambulatory health care services 14.0 3.6 139,996 63,608
Connecticut: Insurance 23.0 8.0 61,923 138,398
Delaware: Monetary authorities 13.6 17.6 7,291 98,802
Florida: Ambulatory health care services 51.4 4.6 521,568 64,552
Georgia: Monetary authorities 32.3 5.2 7,564 90,592
Hawaii: Accommodation 6.2 6.5 42,793 52,973
Idaho: Farms 3.6 4.3 19,608 37,642
Illinois: Insurance 45.7 5.2 139,611 99,628
Indiana: Chemical manufacturing 23.3 6.1 31,565 120,876
Iowa: Insurance 18.5 9.5 52,046 84,186
Kansas: Rental and leasing services and lessors of nonfinancial intangible assets 6.7 3.8 3,835 54,411
Kentucky: Motor vehicles, bodies and trailers, and parts manufacturing 9.3 4.3 61,431 66,973
Louisiana: Petroleum and coal products manufacturing 20.8 8.1 11,379 136,816
Maine: Hospitals 3.3 4.8 33,559 64,486
Maryland: Ambulatory health care services 15.8 3.7 150,609 66,638
Massachusetts: Hospitals 22.1 3.7 198,546 76,723
Michigan: Motor vehicles, bodies and trailers, and parts manufacturing 40.9 7.6 181,247 82,813
Minnesota: Ambulatory health care services 17.0 4.4 156,050 76,583
Mississippi: Ambulatory health care services 5.1 4.4 51,535 59,647
Missouri: Ambulatory health care services 12.3 3.7 120,333 N/A
Montana: Hospitals 2.5 4.7 25,583 65,511
Nebraska: Insurance 11.1 8.6 30,137 72,765
Nevada: Accommodation 17.1 9.6 189,499 41,794
New Hampshire: Insurance 4.3 4.9 13,599 92,107
New Jersey: Ambulatory health care services 27.2 4.3 244,625 64,942
New Mexico: Oil and gas extraction 7.5 7.2 4,372 117,205
New York: Monetary authorities 174.1 9.8 97,155 160,912
North Carolina: Monetary authorities 34.9 5.9 9,664 108,240
North Dakota: Support activities for mining 3.4 5.9 16,486 104,549
Ohio: Monetary authorities 32.1 4.6 32,140 72,365
Oklahoma: Oil and gas extraction 17.7 8.7 16,279 145,703
Oregon: Computer and electronic product manufacturing 16.1 6.3 38,576 136,636
Pennsylvania: Broadcasting and telecommunications 37.2 4.6 35,033 96,788
Rhode Island: Insurance 3.2 5.2 10,612 86,263
South Carolina: Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services 9.9 4.0 171,193 35,086
South Dakota: Monetary authorities 8.2 15.0 53,791 65,539
Tennessee: Ambulatory health care services 18.2 4.8 155,995 66,230
Texas: Oil and gas extraction 111.6 6.1 76,049 207,903
Utah: Monetary authorities 11.1 5.8 4,171 71,347
Vermont: Ambulatory health care services 1.6 4.8 17,271 60,521
Virginia: Computer systems design and related services 28.6 5.1 N/A 125,773
Washington: Publishing industries 54.0 8.8 74,919 246,039
West Virginia: Mining 4.3 5.4 14,258 87,510
Wisconsin: Insurance 18.9 5.4 71,709 78,377
Wyoming: Mining 3.7 9.2 7,835 95,068

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