GNO, Inc. Sunday Night Highlight – Louisiana Top-Ten Three-Peat 🏆🏆🏆

For the third year running, Louisiana has cracked the national Top 10 in Site Selection Magazine’s Prosperity Cup – finishing #8 in the country and #2 in the South Central Region.

The Prosperity Cup measures economic competitiveness across multiple factors:  new and expanded facilities, capital investment, jobs created, tax climate, and workforce credential attainment.

The top ten ranking comes on the heels of historic economic progress in Louisiana.   Louisiana Economic Development recognized 2025 as the largest year of investment and job creation in state history, with more than $61 billion in capital investment and over 9,500 direct new jobs created – at an average salary of over $90,000.  This month, Louisiana crossed another threshold:  following the final investment decision for Commonwealth LNG in Cameron Parish, total announced capital investment since January 2024 has surpassed $100 billion.

A set of interdependent factors is driving this growth and recognition:

• Global and national trends that are driving the repatriation of manufacturing to the United States
• Historic strength of Louisiana industries that serve this repatriation, including energy, trade, defense, and aerospace
• New state initiatives, like LED’s FastSites program (site development) and Project Lightning Speed (interagency coordination)
• Aligned and energized economic development leadership, from the Governor to parish administrations to local economic development organizations

You can read the full 2026 Prosperity Cup report here.
You can read more about Louisiana’s record 2025 investment year here.
You can read more about LED’s $100B milestone here.

Finally, a special tip of the hat to Shell, a stalwart of Louisiana’s energy sector, whose Mars platform, located 130 miles south of New Orleans, recently made history by becoming the first offshore asset in the United States to produce one billion barrels of oil.  When first engineered in the 1990s, the platform was only expected to yield about 500 million barrels. Innovations over the decades doubled that estimate.