List of Businesses Shreveport Has Lost Through the Years
SHREVEPORT, LA - Many people who live in Shreveport Bossier today don't remember the days of the 1980's when this community was booming. The oil and gas industry was firing on all cylinders. There were plenty of high paying jobs.
Who Were Some of Shreveport's Biggest Businesses?
Shreveport Bossier had 3 vibrant malls that were packed on weekends with shoppers and young people. We also had the AT&T plant on Mansfield Road that had more than 6,000 workers. The General Motors plant also had several thousand employees. Barksdale Air Force Base was also one of the areas largest employers.
But things started to change in the 1990's. Politicians and big business leaders started talking about "free trade." We now know the United States lost close to 10 million jobs when American companies moved their facilities to other countries. And perhaps no place in the USA is a better example of big businesses hunting for cheaper labor than Shreveport and this entire region.
How Many Jobs Did Shreveport Lose?
Some estimates say that we've lost in the range of 25,000 jobs since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed in 1989 and China was admitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.
Here are the most notable.
Businesses Shreveport Has Lost Through the Years