OCS Study 

MMS 2006-011 

 

Coastal Marine Institute 

Sustainable Community 

in Oil and Gas Country 

Final Report 

Cooperative Agreement

Coastal Marine Institute 

Louisiana State University 

U.S. Department of the Interior

Minerals Management Service 

Gulf of Mexico OCS Region 
OCS Study 

 MMS 2006-011 

Coastal Marine Institute 

Sustainable Community 

in Oil and Gas Country 

Final Report 

Editor 

Charles M. Tolbert II 

March 2006 

Prepared under MMS Contract 

14-35-0001-30660-19966 

by 

Baylor University 

Department of Sociology 

Waco, Texas 76798 

and 

Louisiana State University 

Department of Sociology 

Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 

Published by 

U.S. Department of the Interior Cooperative Agreement 

Minerals Management Service Coastal Marine Institute 

Gulf of Mexico OCS Region Louisiana State University 
DISCLAIMER 

This report was prepared under contract between the Minerals Management Service (MMS) and 

the Coastal Marine Institute. This report has been technically reviewed by the MMS, and it has 

been approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents necessarily reflect the 

view and policies of the MMS, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products 

constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. However, it is exempt from review and 

compliance with the MMS editorial standards. 

REPORT AVAILABILITY 

Extra copies of the report may be obtained from the Public Information Office (Mail Stop 5034) 

at the following address: 

U.S. Department of the Interior 

Minerals Management Service 

Gulf of Mexico OCS Region 

Public Information Office (MS 5034) 

1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard 

New Orleans, Louisiana 70123-2394 

Telephone: 1-504-736-2519 or 

 1-800-200-GULF 

CITATION 

Suggested citation: 

Tolbert, C.M. II, ed. 2006 Sustainable community in oil and gas country: Final report. U.S. 

Dept. of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, New 

Orleans, LA. OCS Study MMS 2006-011. 76 pp. 

iii 
v 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 

TABLES ........................................................................................................................................ ix 

Chapter 1 Executive Summary...................................................................................................... 1 

1.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................1

1.2 The Original Abbeville Community Study.................................................................................1

1.2.1 Background ..................................................................................................................1

1.2.2 Potential Explanations for Abbeville’s Resiliency.......................................................2

1.2.3 Methodological Approach............................................................................................2

1.2.4 Findings........................................................................................................................3

1.2.4.1 Geography...................................................................................................3

1.2.4.2 History.........................................................................................................3

1.2.4.3 Micro-Level Responses to the Oil and Gas Downturn ...............................3

1.2.4.4 Macro-Level Responses to the Oil and Gas Downturn...............................3

1.2.5 Importance of Findings ................................................................................................4

1.3 The Follow-Up Study..................................................................................................................4

1.3.1 Community Study of a Plant Closure...........................................................................4

1.3.1.1 Background .................................................................................................4

1.3.1.2 Substantive Issues .......................................................................................4

1.3.1.3 Methodological Approach...........................................................................5

1.3.1.4 Findings.......................................................................................................5

1.3.2 A Study of Industrial Composition in Gulf States........................................................6

1.3.2.1 Background .................................................................................................6

1.3.2.2 Substantive Issues .......................................................................................7

1.3.2.3 Methodological Approach...........................................................................7

1.3.2.4 Findings.......................................................................................................7

1.3.2.5 Conclusions: Resiliency and Industrial Diversity .......................................8

1.4 Organization of the Report..........................................................................................................8

Chapter 2 The Original Abbeville Community Study................................................................... 9 

2.1 Literature Review........................................................................................................................9

2.2.1 Socioeconomic Impact of Oil and Gas Development ..................................................9

2.2.1.1 History of the Oil and Gas Industry in Louisiana. ......................................9

2.2.1.2 Service Industry ........................................................................................12

2.2.1.3 Economic Advantages...............................................................................12

2.2.1.4 The Downturn ...........................................................................................13

2.3 Methodology .............................................................................................................................14

2.3.1 Sampling Design ........................................................................................................14

2.3.2 Sampling Frame .........................................................................................................14

2.3.3 Overview of Sample...................................................................................................14

2.4 Findings.....................................................................................................................................14

2.4.1 History, Geography, and Culture ...............................................................................14

2.4.2 Micro-Level Responses..............................................................................................15

2.4.2.1 Belt-Tightening and Self-Provisioning .....................................................15

2.4.2.2 The Strength of Strong Ties ......................................................................16
vi 

2.4.3 Macro-Level Responses .............................................................................................16

2.4.3.1 Agriculture and Fishing.............................................................................16

2.4.3.2 Manufacturing...........................................................................................16

2.4.3.3 Services .....................................................................................................16

2.5 Conclusions...............................................................................................................................17

Chapter 3 A Plant Closure in a Resilient Community................................................................. 19 

3.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................................19

3.2 Review of the Literature ...........................................................................................................23

3.2.1 Structural Unemployment ..........................................................................................23

3.2.2 Plant Closures.............................................................................................................23

3.2.3 The Case of Abbeville................................................................................................ 24

3.2.4 Manufacturing Plant Closures in the Global Economy..............................................24

3.2.5 Restructuring of the Textile Industry .........................................................................25

3.2.6 Government Policy and Plant Closures......................................................................26

3.2.7 Community-Wide Effects of Plant Closure................................................................ 26

3.2.8 Reemployment of Displaced Workers .......................................................................27

3.2.9 Gender and Displacement ..........................................................................................28

3.3 Methodology .............................................................................................................................28

3.3.1 Data Collection Method: Guided Conversations........................................................29

3.3.2 Sampling Frame .........................................................................................................29

3.3.2.1 Purposive Sampling ..................................................................................30

3.3.2.2 Snowball Sampling ...................................................................................31

3.3.3 The Respondents ........................................................................................................32

3.3.4 Coding the Data..........................................................................................................33

3.4 Findings: Impact of the Plant Closure.......................................................................................33

3.4.1 Effects on Employees.................................................................................................33

3.4.2 Desirability of Fruit of the Loom Jobs .......................................................................34

3.4.3 Perceptions of Where Fruit of the Loom Employees Went After Closure.................35

3.4.4 Effect on Family.........................................................................................................36

3.4.5 Effects on Abbeville...................................................................................................36

3.5 Government and Community Responses to Plant Closure .......................................................37

3.5.1 Government Responses .............................................................................................. 37

3.5.1.1 Factory Recruitment Efforts......................................................................37

3.5.1.2 Factory Retention Efforts..........................................................................38

3.5.1.3 Closure Remediation Efforts.....................................................................38

3.5.2 Community Response ................................................................................................40

3.6 Oil and Gas Industry and the Impact of the Plant Closure........................................................40

3.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................44

Chapter 4 Industrial Diversity Along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Coast ........................................ 45 

4.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................................45

4.2 Literature Review......................................................................................................................45

4.3 Methodological Approach.........................................................................................................46

4.3.1 Analysis of Enterprise Data........................................................................................46

4.3.2 Exploratory Study of Establishment Formation and Dissolution...............................47

4.3.3 Exploratory Analysis of Decennial Long-Form Household Microdata .....................47

4.3.4 Units of Analysis........................................................................................................47
vii 

4.4 Findings.....................................................................................................................................47

4.4.1 Limitations of Publicly Available Establishment Data ..............................................47

4.4.2 Analysis of Industrial and Occupational Composition...............................................50

4.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................52

Chapter 5 Community Resilience and the Oil and Gas Industry: Lessons for Rural 

Development............................................................................................................... 53 

5.1 Recapitulation ...........................................................................................................................53

5.2 Sources of Resilience................................................................................................................54

5.2.1 Culture, Ethnicity, and Social Networks ....................................................................54

5.2.2 Dynamic Economic Diversity ....................................................................................54

5.3 Resilience Beyond Abbeville....................................................................................................54

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 57 

APPENDIX A Guide to Conversations on Plant Closings......................................................... 63 
ix 

TABLES 

Page 

Table 3.1 Categories and Numbers of Respondents................................................................................32

Table 4.1 Limitations of County Business Patterns Data on Mining ......................................................49

Table 4.2 T-Test for Differences in Means for Significant Professional Service Sector and Smaller 

Professional Service Sector Places with Significant Oil and Gas Involvement ......................51 
1 

CHAPTER 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Project Personnel: Charles M. Tolbert, II, Baylor University 

1.1 INTRODUCTION

This research report describes two projects that began with a focus on a small community in 

Southwestern Louisiana in the late 1990s. Previous research with Census data on places in coastal 

Louisiana had shown substantial variation in the extent of socioeconomic impact across communities 

(Tolbert 1995). Abbeville, a small town in rural Vermilion Parish, appeared to be particularly resistant to 

the income volatility generally associated with periods of increasing and decreasing oil and gas 

development activities. In the first of the two projects described here, we conducted a community study 

during 1997. From that study, we concluded that Abbeville’s resiliency reflects a historical and cultural 

legacy rooted in rich social resources, economic development, and a distinctive local industrial structure 

that enables it to weather economic disruptions. Our findings suggested that, unlike most oil and gas 

dependent locations, Abbeville’s industrial base is diverse. At the time, this industrial diversity was 

reflected in part by relatively large routine manufacturing, extractive (agriculture), and business and 

professional services sectors. This business and professional services sector was, and continues to be, 

largely oil and gas related, as Abbeville is a center for operations and logistics. 

We concluded the community study in 1998 during a period of high offshore (deepwater) activity. 

Yet, Abbeville was experiencing a potentially huge negative socioeconomic shock: the closure of a Fruit 

of Loom textile plant which had employed as many as 1,100 employees. In this context, we began a 

second research project that had two objectives: 

1. a follow-on community field study to explore the extent to which oil and gas industry 

activity might compensate for the loss of the textile plant, and 

2. a Gulf-wide study of coastal places that might derive resiliency from industrial 

diversity based in part on a thriving business service sector. 

The plant closure study yielded a richly textured depiction of the community impact that varied at the 

individual level by gender, race, and ethnicity. Because most of the displaced workers were female, 

virtually none of them found employment directly in the oil and gas industry. However, there were many 

signs that other household members’ employment in oil and gas activities helped to sustain some 

displaced workers. More generally, the presence of oil and gas in the local economy added to the local 

industrial diversity and sustained the workers and the community through this tough episode. As we 

became more knowledgeable about the community and its history of ups and downs, it became clear that 

a remarkable resiliency prevails that enables Abbeville to sustain itself. In the annals of modern rural 

social science, this is a community characteristic that has been identified only rarely. On the one hand, it 

may be that only a handful of communities possess such resiliency. On the other hand, it may be that the 

Abbeville case is so instructive that it provides us with a far better inventory of characteristics of vital 

communities. To anticipate our conclusions in Chapter 5, all of us involved in this project strongly 

believe that plenty of communities exhibit at least some of Abbevilles’s attributes. Development 

specialists who focus on cultivating Abbeville-like community strengths are building a capacity for 

resilience. 

Our findings are elaborated in a nontechnical manner in the sections that follow immediately in this 

chapter. In subsequent chapters, we explain our methodologies and describe our studies in technical 

detail. 

1.2 THE ORIGINAL ABBEVILLE COMMUNITY STUDY

1.2.1 Background 

Tolbert (1995) did extensive secondary (Census) data analysis of the impact of the expansion and 

decline of oil and gas activity in coastal communities. In the course of their research, they found a 
2 

community that did not show the typical patterns of income volatility associated with oil and gas 

development. This community is the city of Abbeville, a city of 12,500 in coastal and rural Vermilion 

Parish. Abbeville is situated on the Vermilion River about 20 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. 

Using existing data sources, Tolbert and Shihadeh were unable to explain this anomaly. Because the 

apparent sustainability of Abbeville could not be explained with existing data, and because of our access 

to the community, we decided to conduct a multi-method case study of Abbeville. The field study was led 

by then LSU Research Assistant Professor Deborrah Tootle (now with the Louisiana Agricultural 

Extension Service) and LSU Graduate Research Assistant Linda Tobin (now on the faculty at Austin 

Community College). 

1.2.2 Potential Explanations for Abbeville’s Resiliency 

One obvious explanation for Abbeville’s resiliency is simply that Abbeville was not a coastal 

community dependent on oil and gas and therefore not seriously affected by the expansion and 

contraction of oil and gas activity. However, data from various sources showed this was not the case. 

Employment in the oil and gas industries was similar to Louisiana parishes that exhibit high levels of oil 

and gas involvement. Local news accounts as far back as the early 1950s routinely mentioned the 

importance of the oil and gas industry of Vermilion Parish. The weight of the evidence put Abbeville 

squarely in the oil and gas community category. Unlike many others places, however, Abbeville did not 

exhibit the same ups and downs associated with the industry. This led us to turn to other plausible 

explanations. 

A second explanation for Abbeville’s resiliency is industrial diversity. In the rural development 

literature, industrial diversity is often viewed as key to sustaining the community in nonmetropolitan 

America. In recent years, rural economies have become less dependent on agriculture and tend to 

specialize in low-wage manufacturing and service sector jobs. They also tend to be dominated by a single 

industry (such as mining or textiles manufacturing). Specialization tends to leave rural areas vulnerable 

to business cycles and foreign competition. However, diversified rural economies are more stable and 

produce more consistent economic growth, and they can weather sharp economic downturns. Also, the 

offshore oil and gas employers generally pay relatively high wages. Thus, one important objective of our 

community study was an assessment of industrial diversity. 

A third explanation centers on the social resources (relationships, kin, friends, acquaintances) that 

individuals can draw on to sustain themselves through hard times. At the time of the research, the social 

science community was seizing on the concept of social capital. This term refers to a system of reciprocal 

expectations and obligations generated within systems of dense social networks. Many researchers—most 

notably the political scientist Robert Putnam—argue that social capital can bolster the socioeconomic 

performance of a community and therefore cushion the effects of sharp economic downturns. Social 

capital could very well be a key in understanding Abbeville. The community is part of Acadian Louisiana 

where dense social relationships (i.e., extensive kinship networks) are the norm. The community study 

was designed to be very sensitive to evidence of social capital among Abbeville’s residents. 

1.2.3 Methodological Approach 

The original Abbeville community study was a multimethod study that included document and 

historical study and use of qualitative approaches. Our qualitative data collection technique consisted of 

“guided conversations” in which we met with respondents in person and asked them to discuss specific 

topics relating to the study. For example, we asked “how families in Abbeville responded to economic 

downturns.” Each respondent was asked to address the same basic set of topics, but we also remained 

flexible and would address new issues as they emerged. To identify respondents, we relied primarily on a 

type of nonprobability strategy, the purposive sample, and incorporated elements of systematic selection 

into it where possible. We were interested in talking with people who were knowledgeable about local 

economic development, and oil and gas activity, as well as civic and community responses. Therefore, 

we talked with oil and gas stakeholders, the local business community, and local community and civic 

leaders and we asked respondents about other people to whom we should talk. We conducted guided 

conversations with almost 70 persons. 
3 

1.2.4 Findings 

1.2.4.1 Geography 

We learned from the locals the salience of geography in influencing settlement patterns, social 

relationships and economic development. Vermilion Parish had a Census 2000 population of just over 

53,000 persons. The Parish is very diverse geographically, composed of a northern coastal plain ideal for 

agriculture and southern coastal marshes. The only incorporated place of at least 10,000 residents is 

Abbeville (2000 population of almost 12,000). The town and its industrial district extension, Intracoastal 

City, are in the center of the parish on the southernmost edge of the coastal plain. The vast majority of 

persons resides in the northern half of the parish. 

1.2.4.2 History 

Although Vermilion Parish was settled as part of the Acadian movement from Nova Scotia, it was 

developed rather late in the migration episode. Abbeville was designated as a city in 1850 and so named 

because friars were seeking a location for a cathedral in the area south of Lafayette. This rather late start 

may have been significant since it did not permit Abbeville to develop a plantation economy. Instead, 

Vermilion Parish experienced a plethora of family farming enterprises on property received from Spanish 

land grants. Much of this land remains in the hands of a relatively few extended families, indicated by the 

few surnames in area and the vast, dense complex of kinship groups. The French influence remains a 

hallmark of culture even today. Our review of newspapers and historical materials indicated that the area 

remained largely isolated through the second World War. The Acadian culture was dominant, and 

Abbeville was a low-income community. Articles and documents suggested that an in-migration of oil 

and gas workers in post-war period lessened the area’s isolation. But, today the community still has rich 

cultural traditions and strong social capital—rooted primarily in elaborate kinship networks--that buffer it 

through hard times. 

1.2.4.3 Micro-Level Responses to the Oil and Gas Downturn 

When we asked our respondents about how they coped with the downturn of the oil and gas industry 

in the later 1980s, they most often reported that people in Abbeville “tightened their belts.” Oil and gas 

industry workers tended to leave the area. But, persons with family ties stayed and gave up recreational 

activities and luxuries. Many people assumed second (and in some cases, third) jobs. Many women 

entered the labor market and contributed to a family income. Other people took advantage of the 

diversity of natural resources and recreational activities to earn extra income. The geography is so 

amenable to agriculture that there are few barriers to going into the farming business on one’s family 

land. Vermilion is the leading beef cattle producing parish in Louisiana. Beef cattle production is 

especially popular for a number of reasons. Cattle raising is a method of self-provisioning, and it is 

relatively less labor intensive than other forms of agriculture. It can also be a profitable enterprise at 

times. We were also told about small-scale shrimpers who got into the business by retrofitting recreational 

boats. In almost all cases, residents reported relying on social relationships and family ties. Family ties are 

important sources of social and economic resources. 

1.2.4.4 Macro-Level Responses to the Oil and Gas Downturn 

The vast majority of our respondents attributed Abbeville’s survival during the downturn of oil and 

gas activity to agriculture. As one respondent said “our economy is not built on the oil patch.” Others 

mentioned that the city had actively recruited Fruit of the Loom which opened in 1990. The plant initially 

employed almost 1,000 people, 80 percent of whom lived in the parish. Parish and city officials in 

Abbeville (as in most of Acadiana) had also begun to promote tourism. Abbeville is a quaint city, known 

for its seafood restaurants. Frankly, we began to find that these macro-level definitions were not as 

plausible as popular sentiment would suggest. The Fruit of the Loom plant opened too late in the 

downturn episode to be of much help. And, though agriculture may have been an important source of 

industrial diversity, we think the effects were largely felt in the vast rural areas of the parish and not in the 

city of Abbeville proper. We also never observed much tourist activity. Respondents familiar with 

Intracoastal City provided perhaps the best macro explanation for local resilience. They described the 

industrial park as a staging area or center for logistics and operations for the oil and gas industry. Further, 
4 

several key informants argued that the oil and gas downturn was largely a cessation in exploration, not 

production. The many offshore facilities already in production required ongoing servicing. The services 

are varied and range from administrative, financial, legal, medical, transportation, catering, suppliers, and 

so on. The importance of services in Abbeville contrasts with neighboring St. Mary and Iberia parishes 

that specialize in the oil and gas exploration per se or were heavily dependent on related activities such as 

rig fabrication. Most importantly, Tolbert (1995) showed those parishes were harder hit during the oil and 

gas downturn than Vermilion. 

Most rural areas have primarily consumer services. However, we realized that the Abbeville area 

service base is largely business and professional services. There has been a great deal of work on 

producer services in urban areas, where they contribute positively to the economy, but not on producer 

services in rural areas. Producer services are those that are linked to the underlying industrial 

specialization within a region, such as agriculture and oil. At this point, we believe that the producer 

service base is a major factor contributing to sustainability. 

1.2.5 Importance of Findings 

The findings of what we refer to as the “original” Abbeville community study are useful to other 

coastal communities because they provide insights into the social structures, economic structures, and 

socioeconomic processes that contribute to sustainable, as opposed to volatile, development. The logical 

next step was to study communities across the Gulf Coast to see if there were others like Abbeville. 

Realistically, we could not hope to become as intimately familiar will the nearly 1,000 communities along 

the coast from Texas to Florida. However, we strongly believed that we could identify probable 

Abbeville-like communities by searching for a similar, distinctive brand of industrial diversity coupled 

with strong kinship networks and enduring social ties. The aim of the new study was to identify more 

precisely the industrial characteristics that lead to less volatility and to seek them elsewhere. 

As we were putting the finishing touches on the original study, the announcement of the closing of 

the Fruit of the Loom plant sent shockwaves through the community. In the 1990s, Fruit of the Loom had 

been a major employer in the community, and we immediately wanted to observe the effects of its 

closure. Was it the oil and gas industry’s turn to offset a socioeconomic shock in this most interesting and 

resilient community? Thus, our original plans were modified into a two-objective study: a continuation of 

the community study with a focus on the plant closure and a more refined look at industrial diversity 

along the Gulf Coast. 

1.3 THE FOLLOW-UP STUDY

Again with the assistance of MMS (through the LSU Coastal Marine Institute), we began a follow-up 

study that had two foci: 1) a continuation of the Abbeville field study with emphasis on the plant closure, 

and 2) an analysis of industrial diversity in communities in states that border the Gulf of Mexico. Each of 

these project objectives is summarized below. 

1.3.1 Community Study of a Plant Closure 

1.3.1.1 Background 

Fruit of the Loom came to Abbeville, Louisiana, in 1990. During certain peak times of operation, the 

textile plant employed more than 1,000 persons. In the fall of 1997, management announced that the plant 

would close and that operations would be moved to the Caribbean islands. Several rounds of layoffs 

followed, and the plant closed in the summer of 1998. At the same time, oil and gas industrial activity 

was accelerating, especially in terms of deepwater development. We designed the field study to focus on 

the extent to which the expanding oil and gas industry activity might counter some of the socioeconomic 

challenges associated with the plant closure. 

1.3.1.2 Substantive Issues 

Job loss of any kind frequently has far-reaching and long-term effects for many in rural communities. 

Plant closings, especially when large numbers of workers lose their jobs in a short period of time, result in 

massive displacements that disrupt the community and, at times, even entire regions. Our literature review 
5 

presented in Chapter 3 led us to expect substantial negative social and economic consequences when a 

plant of this size closes in a small community like Abbeville. Indeed, much has been written about plant 

closures in the last twenty years; this particular closure is just one more example of the effects of 

industrial restructuring that has occurred in the United States since the early 1980's. Yet, the presence and 

importance of the oil and gas industry in southwest Louisiana is well-recognized and is 

socioeconomically significant. Numerous companies are directly or indirectly supporting, and benefiting 

from, oil- and gas-related activities within this community and surrounding area. Therefore we set out to 

study whether companies connected with the oil and gas industry in the area countered negative 

socioeconomic impacts experienced as consequences of the apparel plant closure. 

During the national economic recession of the early 1980s, plant closings around the United States 

were widely reported. Severe and widespread hardships for displaced workers were noted due to lack of 

local availability of other jobs in manufacturing. Our primary interest in this study was to determine how 

and if the late 1990s economy of this community, particularly the secondary and tertiary support sectors 

of the oil and gas industry, absorbed displaced workers from the apparel plant. These support sectors, 

experiencing a period of relative prosperity at the time of the closure, fall of 1997 through spring of 1998, 

could have mitigated the negative effects of the plant closure by providing post-displacement employment 

to those laid off. This relative prosperity was due to increased deep water oil activity which is less price 

sensitive than coastal and land-based oil activity. We also examined whether, after plant closure, family 

members of displaced workers sought employment in primary, secondary or tertiary sectors of the 

industry, alleviating adverse consequences experienced by the family that were caused by the closure. 

The original Abbeville study informed our study design and execution in numerous ways. Most 

importantly, we undertook the plant closure study conscious of the prevailing history of community 

resilience. Despite the dire predictions of literature, we suspected that the distinctive industrial diversity 

might buffer the community from the full effects of the plant crisis. In the sections that follow, we explain 

our methods for continuing the community study and give a brief synopsis of the findings. 

1.3.1.3 Methodological Approach 

We used a qualitative methodological foundation to answer questions about the impacts of the plant 

closure on the lives of displaced workers, their families, and community, and the role of the oil and gas 

industry in the community. Our earlier experience with this community and with at least two other 

projects dealing with socioeconomics of the region suggests that the best way to investigate the impact of 

the plant closure for this study would be to again collect data using the case study method. This study 

uses a “guided conversation” method which is detailed in Chapter 3. We did background work at the local 

library and reviewed local newspaper archives. This was an important step in understanding how the 

media treated the issue. The media sources also provided information about the opinions of plant 

employees and other community members, and about efforts to assist displaced employees. 

Although providing some structure within guided conversations is important, it was not possible for 

one instrument to adequately address the issues in this study. Therefore, a guided conversation “format” 

was used with the displaced workers. It focused on the economic impacts of the plant closure on the 

workers and their families and on labor market experiences after displacement. The format ensured that 

key issues were addressed, and that key data items were noted during the discussions with respondents. A 

second format “guided” three other respondent groups who included representatives of companies 

engaged in secondary and tertiary support of the oil and gas industry, community leaders, and social 

service agencies. The four groups of persons—displaced workers, oil and gas representatives, community 

leaders, and social service professionals—were used as a basis for developing a sampling frame. We then 

used a combination of random seeding to develop a purposive, snowball sample of respondents. With 

alphabetized rosters of potential respondents, we used a random number table to choose an initial 

respondent in each group. We then contacted persons in list order. Guided conversations were conducted 

with nearly 100 persons by project personnel (graduate assistants Linda Tobin and Michelle Livermore). 

Field notes from these conversations were transcribed and analyzed with a coding system that is detailed 

in Chapter 3. 

1.3.1.4 Findings 

Not surprisingly, the displaced Fruit of the Loom workers reported moderate to severe disruptions in 

their personal lives as a result of the plant closure. Moderate impacts included postponing purchases, 
6 

other belt-tightening of household finances, reliance on other household and family members, and the 

necessity to begin a job search process. More severe impacts typically involved extreme financial 

hardship. The extent of disruption varied widely, however, according to a variety of key social and 

economic variables: timing of layoff or voluntary departure, race, ethnicity, and gender. The plant closure 

was a protracted event that lasted nearly nine months. Workers laid off early on found little in the way of 

social or governmental support. Many of these workers were members of racial and ethnic (primarily 

Vietnamese) groups. Those who quit on their own terms tended to do so because they were aware of other 

opportunities and fared generally well. These workers tended to be white and have strong, longstanding 

ties to the community. Subsequent waves of laid-off workers all found a better prepared community 

support infrastructure that included special job training, government and faith-based social services, and 

targeted educational opportunities. While the predominately female displaced workers did not find jobs 

directly in the oil and gas industry, they encountered a robust local employment situation fueled by the 

community’s industrial diversity. 

The industrial mix of Abbeville includes oil and gas-related industries, agriculture, service and retail 

establishments, and garment manufacturing. Guided conversations with respondents revealed that the 

closure of the Fruit of the Loom plant in Abbeville was less devastating than feared initially because other 

segments of the economy were quite viable. What we found was substantial job growth in this 

community had resulted from development of oil and gas support sectors, as well as growth in other 

industries that have offered alternative labor market opportunities. In spite of its notoriety as being a 

boom-bust industry, respondents in this study viewed the oil and gas industry as a key factor in the 

success of the Abbeville economy. Though this industry is recognized as the cornerstone of the economy, 

respondents also acknowledged the importance of industrial diversity. Most of those in the industry have 

learned to deal with its cyclical nature through diversification and accumulation of capital to use during 

slowdowns. 

Most of the opportunities within the oil and gas industry itself are limited to males, and this appears 

to be true of Abbeville as well. There are jobs in which females can be found, for example, clerical and 

administrative support, but most opportunities for females within the industry are associated with larger 

cities. Though only one family member sought employment in the industry after the plant closure, onethird of the displaced workers we spoke with had at least one family member already employed in the 

industry at the time of the closure. In those instances, the income from these family members was an 

important factor in reducing the impact of the textile plant closure on some families. 

In Chapter 3, we argue that the Fruit of the Loom closure did not devastate the city of Abbeville at 

least in part because of the oil and gas industry. Economic growth and general development of the region 

that has been attributed to the growth of the industry has created demand for labor in other industries and 

employment sectors that has had to be met with adequate labor supply. More employment opportunities 

exist today within this community and surrounding area because, indirectly, growth of the oil and gas 

industry has served as an impetus in creating other labor market opportunities. In this regard alone, 

displaced workers have benefited from oil and gas development. 

1.3.2 A Study of Industrial Composition in Gulf States 

1.3.2.1 Background 

Our original Abbeville study suggested that its resiliency during the 1980s reflected a historical and 

cultural legacy that fosters rich social resources, facilitates economic development, and yields a local 

industrial structure that enables it to weather economic disruptions. Our findings suggested that, unlike 

most oil and gas dependent locations, Abbeville’s industrial base is diverse. This industrial diversity is 

reflected in part by relatively large routine manufacturing, extractive (agriculture), and business and 

professional services sectors. To pursue this finding further, we conducted a study at the Center for 

Economic Studies, U.S. Bureau of the Census. There, we employed confidential longitudinal 

establishment data to analyze the distribution of coastal industrial labor over time and space. We were 

interested in the extent to which spatial and temporal divisions of labor within the oil and gas sectors 

similar to those of Abbeville exist elsewhere along the Gulf Coast. We were also interested in the 

socioeconomic implications of these industrial patterns for coastal communities. We improved on our 

measures of income volatility in coastal areas which have employed summary information from decennial 
7 

census long-form data. We did so by exploring the development of measures of establishment and 

employment volatility over time. 

1.3.2.2 Substantive Issues 

Socioeconomic conditions are primarily dependent upon patterns of industrial organization. Local 

economies are based on the allocation of employment across distinct industrial sectors. Each sector is 

associated with different working conditions, opportunities and job outcomes. In general, complex 

manufacturing and business and professional services are associated with higher wages and stable 

employment while routine manufacturing and consumer services are associated with lower wages and 

unstable employment. In industrialized rural areas (where much of the oil and gas activity is staged), 

sound socioeconomic performance is often a function of a diversified industrial structure. This 

diversification tends to produce more consistent economic growth. Specialized economies, on the other 

hand, can expand rapidly but are particularly vulnerable to local and national level swings in the 

economy. Because diversified local economies are not dependent on any single sector source of 

employment and earnings, they are better prepared than more specialized economies to weather the 

economic downturns associated with specific industries. 

Because of the tendency for rural areas to specialize in routine manufacturing and consumer services, 

the industrial organizational and rural research literatures pay very little attention to business and 

professional services in rural areas. It is readily apparent that producer services in rural areas are closely 

associated with a dominant industrial base, such as oil and gas activity. However, it is not at all clear how 

these linkages develop across time and space. The Abbeville area differs from other oil activity centers 

because it appears to be more of a center for oil field logistics and operations than it is for oil field 

fabrication. Our evidence shows that the concentration of oil-related business and professional services in 

Abbeville is a major factor in Abbeville’s resiliency to the decline in oil and gas activity. For the most 

part, these oil-related producer services firms remained active, albeit at a diminished rate, throughout the 

1980s. However, we currently do not have the necessary spatial and temporal data to examine and 

compare the distribution and differential impact of oil and gas activity across time and space. 

1.3.2.3 Methodological Approach 

Our findings in the original Abbeville case study were sufficiently robust to recommend a hypothesis 

for testing on other communities. The hypothesis was based on our observation of a thriving business and 

professional services sector in the Abbeville economy. Are similar service sectors evident in other coastal 

communities? Can such sectors be shown to be statistically related to the desirable outcomes we have 

observed in our Abbeville research? We were especially interested in the extent to which industrial 

divisions of labor similar to that of Abbeville exist in other coastal communities. We identified areas with 

similar industrial profiles compared them to Abbeville. 

To accomplish this modeling task, we sought establishment-level microdata that were outside the 

public domain, but accessible through an agreement with the Center for Economic Studies (CES), U.S. 

Bureau of the Census. CES has assembled establishment responses to various economic censuses. These 

data in conjunction with an age proxy available from the Census Bureau's Standard Statistical 

Establishment List (essentially a national business register), allowed us to study the "embeddedness" of 

establishments. Access to these data represented a significant step forward for socioeconomic analysis. 

All previous socioeconomic work under the auspices of MMS has necessarily been based on public 

domain-data which are often suppressed for reasons of confidentiality and which do not contain 

information on establishment age or type. By contrast, the economic census data contain no suppression 

and constitutes the universe of U.S. establishments. These data permitted us to formulate detailed 

measures of establishment formation and dissolution as well as changes in local employment levels over 

time and space. Measurement issues and related technical matters are detailed in Chapter 4 of this report. 

1.3.2.4 Findings 

We found a distinctive pattern among some oil-dependent communities with industrial and 

occupational attributes like Abbeville’s. As we had observed in our field work, we found in our internal 

Census data cities, towns, and villages with concentrations of business services related to the oil and gas 

industry. However, the communities most similar to Abbeville (per statistical models) also shared with 
8 

the southwestern Louisiana coastal town a relatively large professional sector (banking, finance, law, 

medical, and public administration) also thrives in Abbeville. Many of these communities were county 

seats, leading us to hypothesize that the constellation of professional services and government agencies 

required for county administration is another potential source of resilience for such communities. We did 

not test this hypothesis directly in this project, but offer it for consideration in subsequent research on 

resilient communities. 

1.3.2.5 Conclusions: Resiliency and Industrial Diversity 

The second study inspired by the original Abbeville community research permitted us to extend our 

time in the community, deepen our detailed knowledge of the community, and extend the breadth of our 

original conclusions to the broader Gulf-coast region. In effect, our research projects spanned nearly five 

years. While there is much that is constant about the community, we are also impressed with the 

dynamism exhibited in its industrial diversity. To be sure, the diversity of the local business climate—

including a large sector of business and professional services—continues to be a primary basis for 

resilient community responses to assorted downturns and crises. Our longer-term perspective on 

Abbeville cautions us that a key source of sustainability at one time may turn out to be problematic at 

another time. Conversely, a seemingly problematic aspect of the local economy may later prove to be 

contributor to local stability. In fact, this is the principle behind industrial diversification. As we will 

discuss further in Chapter 5, various sources of sustainability in the local economy have all had their 

recent ups and downs. These sources include the oil and gas industry, manufacturing employment, and 

even the once indomitable agricultural sector. The particular lesson in the Abbeville context is that 

shifting sectors can be underpinned by strong business services and professional sectors. From our field 

work, we know that the business and professional sector is rooted in a local culture that features strong 

kinship networks and longstanding relationships. A more general lesson is that we should be wary of 

cross-sectional snapshots of any particular community and its social economy. The industrial diversity we 

have observed in Abbeville is quite dynamic in terms of compositional sectoral shifts and realignments. 

Had we conducted a one-shot study, we would have missed this dynamic and quite possibly also missed 

the persistence underlying strength of the business and professional sector. 

1.4 ORGANIZATION OF THE REPORT

This executive summary is followed by three technical chapters in which study specifics are 

described in detail. Chapter 2 recounts the original Abbeville community study. The follow-on 

community study of the Fruit of the Loom plant closure is the subject of Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, we 

report on our work at the Census Bureau in modeling the detailed industrial profile of Abbeville and 

comparing that profile to other places in Gulf-coast states. Finally, we provide a conclusion and 

discussion of results in Chapter 5. That chapter also includes an epilogue that brings the reader up to date 

on Abbeville’s response to yet another crisis: a precipitous decline in rice prices. To anticipate our 

conclusions there, we observe yet again that the community responds in a resilient manner to a potentially 

devastating event. 
9 

CHAPTER 2 THE ORIGINAL ABBEVILLE COMMUNITY STUDY 

Project Personnel: Deborah M. Tootle, Louisiana State University 

Charles M. Tolbert, II, Baylor University 

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.2.1 Socioeconomic Impact of Oil and Gas Development 

If we are to understand what 100 years of oil and gas development activity has meant to coastal 

Louisiana in social and economic terms, we must first look at the history behind that growth. The history 

reveals that oil and gas development occurred unevenly across the region, both temporally and spatially. 

Certain communities fortuitously benefited because of their proximity to offshore activities and the 

acceptance by residents of such activities. With time, diffusion and integration of oil and gas industry 

networks and activities resulted in an almost complete envelopment of numerous coastal communities and 

areas and in sometimes disparate, yet more frequently, similar social and economic consequences for 

participating communities within the region. Thus, it can be said that uneven economic development has 

been a consequence of oil and gas industry involvement and expansion. Furthermore, as national and 

worldwide demand for oil and gas continues to grow, expectations of social, cultural, and economic 

impacts increase in those same areas. 

2.2.1.1 History of the Oil and Gas Industry in Louisiana. 

Access to coastal Louisiana drilling prospects in the early 1900's was difficult due to the marshy, 

swampy environment, and it was not until 1933 with the Texas Company’s introduction of the 

submersible drilling barge that exploration of marsh and shallow coastal waters became cost efficient 

(Lankford 1971). The submersible barge could be towed to the drilling site and sunk, providing a stable 

drilling base. After drilling was completed, the barge was raised and used elsewhere. Consequently, the 

marine environment which held promise for further oil exploration became more accessible to exploration 

companies (Gramling 1996). Another dilemma arose, however, as exploration and production moved into 

increasingly isolated areas of coastal marshes and estuaries; the labor force necessary to perform those 

activities found it increasingly difficult to commute on a daily basis. Two organizational responses 

emerged, significantly impacting the industry’s organization of work. First, because these isolated areas 

had no housing facilities available for the work crews, companies built and provided living quarters 

situated near the work site. Later on, as offshore oil activities proliferated, living quarters became part of 

the work site, built on top of oil platforms situated over open water. The second organizational response, 

that of concentrated working periods, became common. Here the division of work was frequently broken 

down by the week: one week at work and one week off. This type of concentrated work scheduling 

became the model for offshore development, increasing in importance as those activities continued to 

grow (Gramling 1996, 1995, 1989). Therefore, as oil industry activities have progressed farther offshore, 

work schedules have also been extended, with today’s workers commonly staying seven, fourteen, or 

twenty-one days, with daily shifts of twelve hours on, twelve hours off. 

This concentrated temporal scheduling of work is considered by some to have been one of the biggest 

impacts of offshore development and activities on individuals and families in the region. There are a 

number of reasons why. First, concentrated work scheduling (seven days on, seven days off, etc.) attracts 

employees from a larger geographical area, and diminishes the potential concentration of settlement 

around this economic activity, oil and gas extraction (Gramling 1989). Offshore workers may not 

necessarily live in the Gulf Coast region, instead choosing to make infrequent long distance commutes 

from their homes to whatever site they leave from for offshore. This allows families of offshore workers 

the flexibility of living in a traditional place of residence while the offshore worker goes where needed. 

Decisions concerning the site selection of offshore activities were made with less regard to existing 

human settlement patterns because of the large number of these long-distance commuters. In their 

analysis of labor survey data from East St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, an area heavily involved in offshore 

support activities, Gramling and Brabant (1986) found that only thirty percent of the 381 offshore workers 

in the sample lived within 100 miles of where they met to go offshore. 
10 

Gramling and Brabant (1986) further found that employment patterns in East St. Mary Parish prior to 

the offshore industry development did not emphasize this type of nontraditional work scheduling. 

Therefore, local residents initially appeared reluctant to work offshore in a concentrated work scheduling 

environment; that work was, at least initially, filled by commuters outside the area. For some, this pattern 

of concentrated work scheduling has now become a way of life. By working offshore, people may escape 

fluctuations in local or regional economies; for example, if they reside in an economically depressed area, 

concentrated work scheduling elsewhere allows them the possibility of escaping the local economic 

impacts by participating in a wider labor market. Too, there is the possibility of upward mobility without 

familial dislocation. 

Another major impact of concentrated work scheduling is that participation in the nuclear family and 

its social networks is interrupted. While other family members operate on more traditional time/space 

schedules, the offshore worker experiences a totally different non-standardized work schedule. A 1991 

study by Forsyth and Gauthier (1991) reported that families of offshore workers frequently experienced 

problems in maintaining integration of the family unit; only through changing their basic structure and 

organization could they remain viable social systems. Adaptation to that type of work scheduling remains 

a source of stress for individuals and families. In a later study, Austin et al. (2002) found considerable 

diversity in both the nature of offshore oil and gas work and the impacts of that employment on home and 

family life. They found, for example, that families with an multigenerational history of offshore work 

exhibited more savvy in choosing the type off offshore work and more adaptability to the demands of 

offshore work. Households without this intergenerational experience did not adjust as well. 

Many coastal communities relied on maritime activities, supplemented by trapping and agriculture 

prior to industrialization. The transition from seafood and agriculture to industrial activity in southern 

Louisiana occurred at the same time that oil extraction activities progressed further offshore into the outer 

continental shelf. By the 1940's in south LaFourche Parish, Cajun maritime expertise was servicing 

platforms up and down the bayous, and enterprising shrimpers converted storage hulls of their wooden 

trawlers into cargo holds to haul supplies to oil rigs set up in the marshes (Wallace et al. 2001). When 

development extended beyond close-in state waters in the 1970s, local boaters continued to service rigs 

though this often meant acquiring larger vessels suited for open water. 

In the 1960's and 1970's, as the oil and gas industry developed along the Gulf of Mexico, residents of 

communities began to enjoy the positive economic benefits associated with the rapid economic growth of 

that industry. Individuals began to make career decisions based on the expectation that the oil industry 

would stay at that high level of development. There was such a growth in oil industry activities along the 

Gulf Coast that highly paid jobs become available without correspondingly high levels of education. 

While this was a boon to an area with historically low education levels, the availability of low-skill, highwage jobs discouraged aspirations for furthering education. Seydlitz and Laska (1994) found that greater 

petroleum industry activity in Louisiana parishes from 1956-1990 was associated with higher percentages 

of students completing high school, but lower percentages of high school graduates enrolling in college. 

Trade schools, in response to industry demand, taught skills that were marketable for the offshore activity 

(Gramling and Reilly 1980). Therefore, by taking students out of the educational system or leading them 

down one path instead of another, the oil and gas industry has indirectly affected the educational system 

by perpetuating a culture that discounts the value of education (Wallace et al. 2001). 

The 1970's witnessed a dramatic increase in exploratory drilling in a climate of rising oil and gas 

prices. The 1973-1974 oil embargo by the Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting 

Countries (OPEC) served as a tremendous stimulant for further offshore development. Rapid 

employment growth and significant income gains were not uncommon for any community involved in oil 

activities; it was a time of prosperity for the region. Indeed the economic bases of the majority of coastal 

states (Louisiana, Texas, and to a lesser extent Alabama and Mississippi) therefore benefitted from oil 

activities in the Gulf of Mexico. But there were also socioeconomic problems and issues associated with 

this period of time. Rapid population expansions of many of the Gulf of Mexico communities could be 

traced to the growth in demand for oil and gas (McKenzie, et al. 1993), but these were frequently 

accompanied by strains on existing transportation networks, community infrastructures, and the delivery 

of social services. National publications brought news of employment opportunities in the Gulf Coast 

region, and a transient labor force arrived en masse, problematic in itself. At least initially, localities 

became dependent on the high-paying jobs so often associated with oil industry activities. When state and 

local government revenues fell in the recession, labor market problems were exacerbated. To illustrate 

this issue, Gramling and Freudenburg (1990) demonstrated that in terms of employment, ninety percent of 
11 

the variance found in Louisiana coastal parish local employment could be explained by national and 

international petroleum indicators for the period 1970 through 1988. 

While the industry was rapidly developing, resources associated with human and social capital, skills, 

knowledge, experience, teamwork, and networks of supply and distribution and physical infrastructure 

began to interact and develop quickly as well (Gramling 1996). Adaptation occurred within oil and gas 

company organizations, while independent offshore supply companies quickly emerged. Oil and gas 

production companies did not, and could not, operate without a multitude of suppliers. Small businesses 

within the oil and gas industry moved to fill particular niches within the industry for which they felt there 

was a need, exhibiting a tendency toward specialization. Existing businesses adapted in a variety of 

ways, which might have included refitting their equipment to meet the needs of the industry. For 

example, there were mechanic shops that shifted attention to a new oil-related consumer base and spent 

considerable amounts of money on equipment to become marine diesel repair facilities. New specialty 

businesses opened to accommodate the growing industry’s needs. These businesses, which provide 

supplies to the industry and use the products of the industry, generate jobs and capital. Not only must the 

industry find oil offshore and move it ashore, everything required to operate the over-water facility needs 

to be delivered to an onshore support site, and transported to the platform (Davis and Place 1983). 

Industry growth created a need for thousands of vendors along the Gulf Coast that derived at least a 

portion of their income from offshore operations, and this is still true today (Applied Technology 

Research Corporation 1994). An analysis of telephone directories in the early 1970's identified over 

3,500 businesses in coastal Louisiana alone, directly serving the petroleum industry (Davis and Place 

1983). 

A huge support system has developed over time, one that essentially keeps all oil and gas operations 

on schedule. Fabrication yards, refineries, terminals, boat docks, airports, helicopter bases, repair 

facilities, shipyards, and pipe storage areas are all essential to offshore operations. Communities along 

the industry’s corridor became bases of operation, attracting numerous types of businesses involved in 

meeting the needs of the onshore and offshore operators. Expansion of these support facilities stimulated 

the local economies and prompted an increase in residential, commercial, industrial, and utility land uses, 

impacting nearly every community in the region. In fact, there are those who believed it was difficult to 

find one community, at least in Louisiana, that had not profited by the exploration and development of the 

hydrocarbon reserves off the states’ coast (Applied Technology Research Corporation 1994). 

The development of secondary and tertiary support sectors significantly impacted the region’s 

socioeconomic well-being. Economists generally agree that the success of a particular economic 

development scenario depends at least as much on the ability of the region to capture spin-off and spillover activities, as on the primary development. These activities are more likely to generate jobs and 

capital that result in a more diversified form of development, essential to a community’s sustainability 

(Lovejoy and Krannich 1982). 

Applied Technology Research Corporation (1994) defines the multi-layered secondary and tertiary 

support sectors as those who sell goods or services directly to producing companies. In turn, each sector 

does business with other suppliers and contractors, who in turn do business with others, and so on. No 

company operates alone; the business structure within which oil and gas activities function may be 

centered around producing companies, but the economic impacts are widespread. 

Metal fabrication, shipbuilding, and water transportation were important components of the 

development of secondary and tertiary industry in East St. Mary Parish (Manuel 1980). As jobs became 

available both in offshore oil and gas and related fields in the 1950's and 1960's, residents took advantage 

of the highly competitive employment opportunities surrounding offshore activities (Manuel 1983). 

Initially, lack of competition from outside the area affected the types of jobs available, as oil development 

activities required continued modifications and redesigns of equipment. The need was local, the 

conditions were local, therefore development of strong secondary and tertiary industrial sectors was 

paramount. Too, with more traditional working conditions and hours than were found in primary 

employment offshore, local employment rose rapidly in those support sectors (Gramling and Brabant 

1986). The result was increased reliance not only upon primary oil and gas extractive activities but an 

even greater reliance upon the associated secondary and tertiary industries associated with oil and gas 

development (Manuel 1977).
12 

2.2.1.2 Service Industry 

Since the mid-1970's, service-producing industries have been the source of most employment growth 

in the U.S. Composed of a heterogeneous mix of industries, differing mixes of regional service 

employment have different development implications (Hirschl and McReynolds 1989). An example of 

the growth in Louisiana oil services industry can be seen when examining the states’ employment from 

1973-1977. Far outstripping the national growth rate in services, state employment in oil industry support 

services gained 65 percent (Manuel 1980); by 1974, employment in some secondary sector activities 

(water transportation, metal fabrication, ship and boat building and repair) had actually exceeded 

employment in the economic primary sector in two of the most involved parishes in Louisiana (Gramling 

1996). The incentive to move into offshore support sectors was high because jobs paid well. Statewide, 

by 1981, the offshore oil industry in Louisiana provided direct employment to 41,781 persons. 

Additionally, it was indirectly responsible for the creation of 83,500 other jobs in construction, 

maintenance and repair, retail and wholesale trade, business services and 34 other economic sectors. For 

the 1970s, it was estimated that for every new job created in the Louisiana oil and gas industry, two new 

jobs were created in other sectors of the state’s economy (Scott 1981). Thus, increased labor market 

opportunities by necessity follow expansion of oil and gas activities. 

Producer services, sometime referred to as intermediate or input services because they are often used 

to further the processing of raw materials and the production and distribution of manufactured goods 

(Singelmann, 1978; Stanback 1979; Noyelle 1984), increase productivity through coordination and 

integration of services for the local manufacturing base, allowing the local manufacturing base to achieve 

a greater position of dominance (Goe 1994). Some argue that the producer service sector creates wealth 

in a local economy by exporting services to other areas (Irwin and Kasarda 1991; Lincoln 1978; Hansen 

1994). 

Other important services not noted in the literature reviewed thus far are professional services. These 

include legal and financial services provided by professionals such as lawyers and accountants. These 

professional services make it possible for businesses to form, operate and generate profits. They are also 

the type of service jobs found in other resilient oil and gas communities in the Gulf Coast region (see 

Chapter 4). 

All other oil service sectors provide vital links in all stages of oil development activities. The list is 

almost endless: land, water, and air transportation; ship and boat building/repairing; fabrication; offshore 

catering; drilling mud service; oil field tubing; wireline; casing; surveying; geological testing; chemical 

and various types of specialized equipment and instrumentation companies. These are only some of the 

types of service companies in operation today (Gramling 1996). Without this vast assortment of services 

meeting the needs of companies engaged in primary activities, the industry could not function. Without 

an adequate supply of labor for primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, the industry cannot grow. 

2.2.1.3 Economic Advantages 

Increased opportunities for the types of highly paid employment frequently associated with oil 

industry activities usually suggests widespread prosperity within those communities. However, not all 

local individuals profit from development; those with few skills or who are not willing to train for work in 

energy-related jobs will not benefit from the improved economic conditions (Manuel 1983). Brabant 

(1993) found that in four Louisiana parishes, those who were poor prior to offshore development were 

from the local area, uneducated, and lacked skills. With the tremendous growth in the offshore oil 

industry, Brabant (1993) found a significant decline in the mean number of households receiving food 

stamps by the mid 1970's. Not only were those poor who wanted to work able to extricate themselves 

from welfare rolls, they were able to earn substantial incomes even if education and earlier skills were 

deficient. 

These types of economic advantages for labor persisted throughout the 1970's, when the emphasis in 

the industry was on speed, not costs. The quicker a company could supply equipment, products, or labor, 

the faster the industry grew. A basic rule of economics states that when the demand for a product or 

service is high, such as skilled labor, the result is higher wages. This was certainly the case in the growth 

of offshore activities. Profit margins were sufficiently high that companies did not need to be concerned 

with expenses or becoming expert business managers. It was a phenomenon remarked upon by one 

respondent in a 1992 study, “People made money in spite of themselves.” (Freudenburg and Gramling 

1992). 
13 

2.2.1.4 The Downturn 

In the early 1980's, the economy of the Gulf Coast region went into a tailspin due to falling crude oil 

prices and reduced demand for petroleum products which created a crude oil glut. When there is a 

pullback in oil and gas prices, oil and gas activities follow suit. Companies associated with oil industry 

development began to lay-off significant numbers of workers. Communities involved in those activities, 

particularly those whose economic base was primarily connected to the industry, experienced economic 

downturns that would prove difficult to overcome. Across the region, job growth slowed, and 

unemployment rates swelled to well above the U.S. average. Gramling (1996) noted that unemployment 

levels in some parishes went from a low of about four percent to a high of twenty percent by the mid-tolate 1980's. The national savings and loan crisis of the late 1980's gained fuel from the oil price collapse, 

because banks and S&Ls with outstanding loans to oil companies, and real estate developers who 

borrowed to build during the oil boom, were caught short by the rapidity of economic decline. Anyone 

involved in the housing industry was hurt by employment declines and out migration (Laska et al. 1993). 

The Gulf Coast was feeling the effects of a regional recession. A 1993 study of coastal Texas, Louisiana, 

Mississippi, and Alabama (McKenzie et al. 1993) found that between 1982 and 1986, the number of 

mining industry jobs, of which oil and gas were predominant, decreased by 28.63 percent. Some who had 

migrated to the region left the area, and in-migration nearly ceased. A significant number of those who 

stayed in the Gulf of Mexico coastal regions eventually found new employment in other industrial sectors. 

This new employment was to have serious consequences for the industry when it eventually rebounded 

around the mid 1990's. 

From the 1970's until the early 1980's, and then again in the mid 1990's until recently, a shortage of 

available workers proved to be a chronic problem in times of increasing activity. With the most recent 

rebound of the industry, there has again been an increasing demand for labor, but this time, it appears to 

be more difficult to attract workers. Many of those who worked in the oil and gas industry and 

experienced the slowdown of the 1980's have no desire to reenter an industry that they believe is too 

volatile. Interestingly, Donato et al. (1998) found that the mid-1990's shortage of skilled workers in 

shipbuilding was so extreme, firms offered workers from outside the area temporary housing and 

mimicked the practice of the offshore oil and gas industry with a seven days on/seven days off work 

schedule. 

Deseran and Tobin (2003) conducted a study that examined demand for labor among coastal 

Louisiana oil and gas service companies. In that study, on-site managers and personnel administrators 

recognized problems and expressed concerns about a number of issues that were similar to those of the 

1970's: the lack of available skilled or certified workers, the increasing emphasis on industry safety, the 

need to keep turnover rates down, and a growing frustration with new employees wanting high wages for 

less work. Results indicate that labor market supply and demand continues to be primary concerns for the 

industry, and two comments made by respondents demonstrate this. The first, made by a representative 

of an oil and gas service company: “. . . [our] problem finding qualified workers...has been identified as 

the single and most important aspect which is going to limit our growth in the future. . . ” The second 

comment, from the manager of a ship building/repair company: “ . . . with the scarcity of skilled labor that 

we have experienced...it makes more sense to go out and acquire another shipyard than it does to expand . 

. . and try to pull from the labor pool . . . .” 

Labor market studies have consistently found that working conditions, opportunities, and job 

outcomes vary depending on the industrial sector (Lobao 1990; McGranahan 1988; Horan and Tolbert 

1984). Labor market opportunities vary because some communities developed into administrative 

headquarters for both major and independent oil companies demanding educated labor that could be 

assured of high wages, while need for labor in other areas was considerably different. In the latter, highly 

paid jobs resulted from complex manufacturing needs of oil and gas fabrication yards where educational 

attainment was not necessarily important but the ability to become skilled at one’s job was. This study 

explores how the economic context of the oil and gas industry impacted workers laid off after the closure 

of the Fruit of Loom apparel plant in Abbeville, Louisiana. When other sectors of the economy decline 

and the oil industry has a high demand for labor, the industry affects occupational selection (Wallace et 

al. 2001). 
14 

2.3 METHODOLOGY

We designed a multilevel, multi-method study that included document and historical study and use of 

qualitative and quantitative techniques. Our qualitative data collection technique consisted of an approach 

referred to as “guided conversations” in which we met with respondents in person and asked them to 

discuss specific topics relating to the study. For example, we asked how families in Abbeville responded 

to economic downturns. Each respondent was asked to address the same basic topics, but we also 

remained flexible and would discuss new issues as they emerged in the course of the conversations. 

2.3.1 Sampling Design 

In community studies, investigators often employ nonprobabilty sampling designs. A nonprobability 

sample is legitimate, and often preferable to probability sampling in small studies, especially where the 

probability of selecting an element from the universe is unknown, such as when the universe consists of 

respondents who are knowledgeable about a particular issue. In many community studies, investigators 

use snowball sampling, a proces in which the investigators begin with an initial list of key informants and 

subsequently ask each informant to name another person (or persons) that is knowledgeable about the 

issue in question. A problem with using the snowballing technique is that it can compromise the internal 

validity of a study if snowballing does not lead to a diverse enough group of respondents. To avoid this 

problem, we relied primarily on another type of nonprobability strategy, the purposive sample, and 

incorporated elements of systematic selection into it where possible. 

2.3.2 Sampling Frame 

We were interested in talking with people who were knowledgeable about local economic 

development, and oil and gas activity, as well as civic and community responses. Therefore, we wanted 

to talk with oil and gas stakeholders, the local business community, and local community and civic 

leaders. We constructed a frame for a nonprobability sample from existing lists of stakeholders; we used 

phone, city and parish directories and membership lists. Oil and gas stakeholders, and members of the 

business community were pulled from Yellow Page listings and the membership lists of the Greater 

Abbeville-Vermilion Parish Chamber of Commerce. We included owners, operators and managers of 

businesses with direct and indirect linkages to the oil and gas industry. Civic leaders are pulled from city 

and parish government lists (i.e., Abbeville City Council, and Vermilion Parish Police Jury). We 

compiled a list of community leaders from those mentioned frequently in the newspaper for the last year. 

Within each category of respondents we used some form of systematic selection. Because most of the 

stakeholders are also members of the community, our four sets of respondents are not mutually exclusive. 

We did ask respondents about other people to whom we should talk. This minimal amount of 

snowballing was useful in identifying knowledgeable community members who acted informally not so 

much as community leaders, but rather as “community historians”. These respondents were useful in 

providing a basic understanding of the local social and economic setting. 

2.3.3 Overview of Sample 

We completed about 60 guided conversations with the oil and gas stakeholders, civic officials, 

community leaders, and other members of the business community (such as those in agriculture services). 

The respondents tended to be white males (about 80 percent). Ages ranged from 35 to 85. All had lived in 

the community since at least the early 1980s. A third had college degrees. The most diverse aspect of the 

sample was occupational diversity (oil field workers, restaurant owner, attorney, hair dresser, public 

safety officer, and so on). 

2.4 FINDINGS

2.4.1 History, Geography, and Culture 

The geography of Abbeville and surrounding Vermilion Parish affected settlement patterns, social 

relationships and economic development. Geographically, Vermilion Parish is very diverse. The 

northern part of the Parish is “coastal prairie”—flat, agricultural land. The southern part of the Parish 
15 

consists largely of wetlands. Vermilion Parish is sparsely populated (53,000 persons in 1174 square 

miles), but the vast majority of the population resides in the northern part of the Parish. Heading due 

south from Lafayette, one drives through village of Maurice to Abbeville. Erath and Delcambre are just 

east of Abbeville and the towns of Kaplan and Gueydan are west. Intracoastal City is due south of 

Abbeville and is considered to be an extension of Abbeville (Abbeville addresses, phone numbers), even 

though it is a half-hour drive away. Intracoastal resembles an industrial park more so than a residential 

area. Most of those who work in Intracoastal City live in Abbeville. Thus, Vermilion Parish consists of 

one city (Abbeville) and five villages and towns. 

The geography of coastal Louisiana had a profound effect on its early settlement patterns and the 

relationships of residents to the land and natural resources. Vermilion Parish was settled as part of the 

Acadian movement from Nova Scotia. Historians divide settlements into east and west settlements. The 

eastern settlements, along Mississippi River and Lafourche Bayou, were preferable to immigrants and 

new settlers. Western settlements were considered to be part of the “wilderness”, and Vermilion Parish, 

consisting of coastal prairie and wetlands that did not provide many natural materials for building shelter 

or making fires was settled relatively late (Ancelet et al., 1991; Brasseaux 1987). The western coastal 

parishes were settled primarily for farming and ranching. Abbeville was designated as a city in 1850 by 

an act of the state legislature and remains under state charter today. Abbeville does not appear to have 

developed a plantation economy. Typically in plantation economies, large and small farms and 

agricultural enterprises co-existed. In Vermilion Parish however, the family farms were relatively 

homogeneous. Families would live on and farm property they received in Spanish land grants. As 

families expanded, they would continue to farm in close proximity so that family-based communities 

developed. Many families still own and farm the same land; it is not unusual for families to retain land 

originally accorded by the Spanish government. As a consequence, there are relatively few surnames and 

a dense complex of kinship groups in the area (Brasseaux, 1987). 

The History of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana assembled by the Vermilion Historical Society, 

chronicles the ethnic diversity of the community. Even though the area is multicultural, cultural identity is 

strongly rooted in the French heritage of the early settlers. Some of the early morning and weekend radio 

and TV broadcasts (even Public Radio) are still in French. Many in the older generation do not speak 

English. Some of our non-French speaking respondents spoke of a stigma of being “American” in 

community of French speakers. We learned of an undercurrent of cultural tension that persisted until the 

1960s when oil and gas industry workers moved into the area in mass. This began to limit the geographic, 

social, and economic isolation of the area. However, our guided conversations with the locals made it 

clear that the changes brought about by the advent of the oil and gas industry did little to change the 

tradition of strong kinship networks based on a French heritage. 

By the middle of the 20th century, oil and gas had come to stay. Even so, Abbeville continued to be a 

farming community with relatively poor residents. A survey in the Abbeville MeridionaI from 1960 

showed that 7.4 percent of the population in Abbeville had no visible means of support and that 73 

percent of white males worked irregularly. Tenant farming was common. 

In our guided conversations, we talked to respondents about both individual and family (micro) level 

and community (macro) level responses to the volatility associated with oil and gas activity. We present 

findings for each of these levels in sections that follow. 

2.4.2 Micro-Level Responses 

2.4.2.1 Belt-Tightening and Self-Provisioning 

In terms of micro level responses, our respondents most often reported that people in Abbeville 

“tightened their belts.” Although many skilled workers left the area, residents with family ties stayed and 

gave up recreational activities and luxuries. Many people assumed second (in some cases, third) jobs. 

Many women entered the labor market and contributed to the family income. Other people took 

advantage of the diversity of natural resources and recreational activities to earn extra income. Those with 

land raised beef cattle. Ranching is less labor intensive than crop farming. It depends largely on family 

labor which was abundant during hard times. Others became small-scale shrimpers by adapting 

recreational boats. Trapping and selling furs remains a a common activity. Generally, these selfprovisioning and side-income strategies are very similar to those that anthropologists studying rural 

development have found that rural residents in the United States use in periods of economic downturns. 
16 

2.4.2.2 The Strength of Strong Ties 

Many of our respondents reported relying on social and kinship relationships. Family ties and other 

social relationships, as forms of social capital, are important sources of social and economic resources. 

Families provided economic support in terms of housing and economic assistance. As one of our 

respondents told us: “Everybody’s going to eat.” Families also provided jobs during the hard times 

associated with the downturn in oil and gas activity. A local service station owner told us he employed his 

wife, children, his brother, his in-laws, his and god-child on an “as needed” basis. These findings provide 

support for our supposition that social capital can soften the edges of economic hardship. 

2.4.3 Macro-Level Responses 

Our discussion with Abbeville residents led us to the clear conclusion that the area economy is quite 

diverse. It exhibits diversity across industrial sectors. Census 2000 showed employment by parish 

residents as follows: agriculture and fishing (4 percent) , mining—primarily oil and gas (12 percent), 

construction (8 percent), manufacturing (7 percent), retail trade (13 percent), finance, insurance, and real 

estate (6 percent), professional services (6 percent), education and health (18 percent), and public 

administration (4 percent). Paradoxically, in our longitudinal study, we also observed diversity in the 

sources of industrial diversity. The leading sector at one point in time was not necessarily the leader at a 

subsequent point. This rotation of leading sectors permits the economy to show an ongoing resilience. In 

the sections below, we briefly discuss our findings with respect to important sectors of the local economy. 

We return to the theme of rotating leading sectors in Chapter 5. 

2.4.3.1 Agriculture and Fishing 

The vast majority of our respondents attributed Abbeville’s survival during the downturn of oil and 

gas activity to agriculture. And, this is despite the small fraction of employment directly in agriculture (4 

percent in 2000). As one respondent said “our economy is not built on the oil patch.” In 1963 Vermilion 

Parish was top rice producing parish in the state. It remains so today. The parish was fifth statewide in 

beef cattle production in 1963, and it is number one today. The area has long been a leader in seafood 

harvesting and processing. In the 1980s, crawfish farming became a major industry. Vermilion Parish has 

a long history of sugar cane production and is a leading parish in that commodity as well. 

2.4.3.2 Manufacturing 

During the oil and gas downturn, the city actively recruited Fruit of the Loom (hereafter FOL) to 

locate a textile plant in Abbeville. FOL opened in the early summer of 1990 and initially employed almost 

1000 people, 80 percent of whom lived in the parish. Though the plant would later close, its presence 

indicates the important role that manufacturing plays in the local economy. One other textile plant that 

employs 300 persons is located in Abbeville. Chapter Three contains more information about the FOL 

plant closing and the community response to a potentially disastrous economic disruption. 

2.4.3.3 Services 

Other local economic development initiatives include the intensive promotion of Abbeville as a 

tourist attraction. Abbeville is a quaint and attractive city, known for its seafood restaurants and 

amenities. The Parish opened the port of Vermilion in 1983. Combined with the strength of the 

agriculture and manufacturing sectors, these factors seem to be plausible explanations for the 

community’s resilience. Yet, when we began to examine them more closely, they did not hold up to 

scrutiny. Because Fruit of the Loom did not open until 1990, it had relatively little time to influence the 

local climate of resiliency. Similarly, Port of Vermilion did not open until 1983, and did not develop to 

any great extent. Today, it is still sparsely occupied. Tourism is steady but not a major stream of revenue 

for Abbeville. While these service operations contribute to diversity in the local economy, they were not 

cited by our respondents as key to the city’s resiliency. 

As we began spending time in Intracoastal City, it became more apparent to us that business, 

producer, and professional services were especially important in the local economy. Intracoastal was 

described by our respondents as “a staging area,” or a “center for logistics and operations for the oil and 

gas industry.” Intracoastal City, unlike other major sites of oil and gas activity, is not involved in 
17 

fabrication as much as it is involved in oil related services. As one of our respondents in a major service 

company related, the exploration and drilling may have stopped during the downturn, but production 

continued. Everything that is needed on production rigs must be transported by either boat or helicopter. 

This includes personnel, equipment, drilling fluids, and water. From the Abbeville Meridional VIOLA in 

April 1983, 207 industries were located in Intracoastal City and 24,000 people moved through monthly. 

Intracoastal City is also a major supply and distribution center for the shrimping industry. 

The important role of agriculture in the local economy means that Abbeville is the home of major 

agricultural services. There is a large rice mill with attendant storage and transportation facilities. Steen’s 

sugar syrups are processing and packaged in Abbeville and marketed nationally. In addition, there are 

numerous small seafood and other food product processing operations.

The importance of the service sector generally and the business services sector specifically is 

reflected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s classification of Vermilion Parish as a service specialty 

county. St. Mary and Iberia parishes, in contrast, are classified as mining due to the extent of oil and gas 

industry activity. Usually, services in rural areas consist primarily of consumer services. But, our 

respondents helped us realize that the service base in this area is dependent to a large extent on what are 

called producer or business services. There has been a great deal of research on producer services in 

urban areas, where they contribute positively to the economy, but not on producer services in rural areas. 

Producer services are those that are linked to the underlying industrial specialization within a region, such 

as agriculture and oil (Glasmeier and Howland 1995). In the case of Abbeville, we view the business/

producer services sector as a key underpin of the local economy. 

2.5 CONCLUSIONS

At this early point in our long community study, we concluded that the resilience exhibited by 

Abbeville was not reducible to a single community feature or industrial sector. The resiliency is richly 

textured, grounded in social and kinship structures as well as a local economy more diverse than most 

rural, coastal economies. The findings of this original Abbeville study are useful to other coastal 

communities because they provide insights into the social structures, economic structures, and 

socioeconomic processes that contribute to sustainable, as opposed to volatile, development. The logical 

next step was a project to study communities across the Gulf Coast to see if there were others like 

Abbeville. Realistically, we could not hope to become as intimately familiar will the nearly 1,000 

communities along the coast from Texas to Florida. But, we strongly believed that we could identify 

probable Abbeville-like communities by searching for a similar, distinctive brand of industrial diversity 

that is rooted in strong kinship networks and enduring social ties. The aim of the new study was to 

identify more precisely the industrial characteristics that lead to less volatility and to seek them elsewhere. 

In policy terms, this information could well assist agencies in determining where to permit certain 

development activities. 

As we were putting the finishing touches on the original study, the announcement of the closing of 

the Fruit of the Loom plant sent shockwaves through the community. In the 1990s, Fruit of the Loom had 

been a major employer in the community, and we immediately wanted to observe the effects of its 

closure. Was it the oil and gas industry’s turn to offset a socioeconomic shock in this most interesting and 

resilient community? Thus, our original plans were modified into a two-objective study: a continuation of 

the community study with a focus on the plant closure and a more refined look at industrial diversity 

along the Gulf Coast. The plant closure is the subject of Chapter 3, and the quantitative community study 

is detailed in Chapter 4. 
19 

CHAPTER 3 A PLANT CLOSURE IN A RESILIENT COMMUNITY 

Project Personnel: Linda A. Tobin, Austin Community College 

 Michelle Livermore, Louisiana State University 

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This qualitative study examines the labor market implications of the downsizing and final closure of 

an apparel plant employing over 800 workers. This occurred in Abbeville, a southwest Louisiana 

community with a population of about 13,000. The community’s single biggest public employer, the 

apparel plant closed its doors in 1998 after more than seven months of rumor, speculation, worry and layoffs. Job loss of any kind frequently has far-reaching and long-term effects for many in rural 

communities, but plant closings especially, where large numbers of people lose employment over a short 

period of time, result in “displacement...that can be devastating for communities and regions as well as 

individuals” (Perrucci et al. 1988). Therefore, in this small community, one expects to find negative 

economic and social consequences for those directly affected, the displaced plant employees, the majority 

of whom are female, their families, and the community at large. Two days after the closure was 

announced, the local mayor estimated that total economic losses to the community could translate into as 

much as $6 million. 

Much has been written about plant closures in the last twenty years; this particular closure is just one 

more example of the effects of industrial restructuring that has occurred in the United States since the 

early 1980's. What is unusual in this community is the considerable presence of another industry, one that 

could lessen those negative economic and social effects of the plant closure. That industry is oil and gas 

exploration and extraction. The presence and importance of the oil and gas industry in southwest 

Louisiana are well-recognized and are socioeconomically significant. Numerous companies are directly 

or indirectly supporting, and benefitting from, oil- and gas-related activities within this community and 

surrounding area. Therefore this study examines whether companies connected with the oil and gas 

industry in the area countered negative socioeconomic impacts experienced as consequences of the 

apparel plant closure. 

During the national economic recession of the early 1980's it was widely reported that plant closings 

around the United States resulted in severe and widespread hardship for displaced workers because the 

local economies could not be expected to absorb them (Leahy and Lin 1992; C & R Associates 1978; 

Parnes and King 1977; Wilcock and Franke 1968). Our primary interest in this study is to determine 

how, and if, the late 1990's economy of this community absorbed displaced workers from the apparel 

plant. We focus in particular on the role of the secondary and tertiary support sectors of the oil and gas 

industry in buffering the community from the impact of the closure. These support sectors, experiencing 

a period of relative prosperity at the time of the closure (fall of 1997 through early spring of 1998), could 

have mitigated the negative effects by providing post-displacement employment to those laid off. This 

relative prosperity was due to increased deep water oil activity, which is less price sensitive than coastal 

and land-based oil activity. Production in deep water requires huge capital investments made possible by 

mergers and transactions among companies. And, the industry has formed alliances and partnerships in 

which obligations, responsibilities, and costs are shared (Wallace et al. 2001). We also examine whether, 

after plant closure, family members of displaced workers sought employment in primary, secondary or 

tertiary sectors of the industry, alleviating adverse consequences experienced by the family that were 

caused by the closure. 

Expansion of the oil and gas industry has served as a catalyst for economic growth and development 

in Abbeville by directly and indirectly creating additional employment opportunities in other industries. 

Oil and gas is an export industry, producing for nonlocal markets. Along with manufacturing and 

agriculture, it generates a multiplier effect in rural communities which includes the development of other 

industrial and professional service sectors (Hirschl and McReynolds 1989; Miller and Bluestone 1988; 

Summers et al.1976). 

Because the majority of those who were employed at the plant were women (some estimates placed it 

as high as 80 percent), this study in particular examines possible opportunities and constraints on labor 

market participation of females in the secondary and tertiary support sectors of the oil and gas industry. 
20 

Although reported expansion of primary oil and gas development activities during that time period could 

positively affect the labor market opportunity structures for these women within the oil and gas industry, 

we do not expect to see evidence of that. Rather, we expect to see displaced women from the apparel 

plant turn to other industries. It is likely opportunities in other industries have arisen due to the 

development of the oil and gas industry. As Summers (1982) notes, industrial development stimulates 

additional employment in other sectors. 

Our interest in this event encompasses more than the actual closure of the apparel plant in this 

community. Displacement of over eight hundred workers occurred because a corporation made a 

decision to close its plant at that location and relocate overseas. Discerning initial consequences of that 

event entails finding out who was displaced, and what happened to them after the closure. In this 

community an interesting scenario exists. There is the closure of the single largest employer, the apparel 

plant; yet there is also the co-presence of an expanding oil and gas industry which essentially requires an 

available supply of labor in order to meet its needs. Both structural forces are mediated through human 

decision-making process, thus the effect of job loss on their lives required displaced workers and their 

families to make decisions. Workers had to choose a new kind of labor market activity; select a new 

location for labor market activity; decide whether or not to participate in job training or educational 

programs; and identify ways to ensure family financial survival. One factor influencing decision making 

is ethnicity. The values and norms of individuals from different ethnic backgrounds often differ and this 

affects how they respond to certain situations. Answering the aforementioned research questions 

contributes to an understanding of labor market supply and demand within this particular community and 

the individual decisions that influence them. 

The closure of a branch apparel plant in this community is not an unusual occurrence nationally. As 

research on rural communities has shown, since the 1930s, a primary focus of local policies in the U.S. 

has been economic development of rural areas, with state and local governments playing an active role. 

Promotion of local development is usually accomplished through the issuance of municipal tax-free bonds 

by states which helps finance the construction of industrial plants because it allows private firms a 

reduction in their borrowing costs. This evolves into “public-private partnerships” through which state 

and local governments offer a wide variety of financial incentives to attract private investment (Moore 

1996). Thus, by lowering the price of land, labor, and necessary capital, state and local governments 

assist communities in creating a locational advantage. This “boosterism” continues to attract companies 

and much-needed jobs to hard-pressed rural communities, yet little evidence exists that such subsidization 

of private firms reduces the long-term unemployment rate or improves the economic prospects of local 

residents, particularly in light of recent restructuring (Moore 1996). Rural communities are not shielded 

from macroeconomic forces. 

Consequences of industrial restructuring in the United States, particularly since the 1980's, have been 

studied extensively. Plant closings and restructuring have eliminated millions of jobs in the 

manufacturing sector of the economy, a disinvestment in the economy that Bluestone and Harrison (1982) 

call “deindustrialization.” In the United States, structural unemployment has been one of the 

consequences of relocation to less developed nations of the production of manufactured goods by 

multinational firms. Manufacturing workers across this country, like the displaced workers in this study, 

are left behind when multinational firms relocate elsewhere, frequently to those areas of the world where 

labor costs are considerably less. Less diversified rural communities dependent upon manufacturing for 

economic sustainability are particularly vulnerable, and consequently even more negatively affected when 

those plants locate elsewhere. There has been a growing concern over management decisions that are 

being driven by international competition. From management’s point of view, cutting labor costs has 

been the essential strategy for meeting foreign competition; moving overseas provides the escape from 

high wages paid to rural workers (Fitchen 1991). In fact, cutting labor costs was the reason given by 

apparel plant management in this community; just after announcing plant layoffs, the local newspaper 

quoted a Vice President for Corporate Relations as saying, “The apparel industry’s very competitive. . 

.competitors have gone overseas. We had to do this sooner or later. . .we were looking to the future. Our 

stockholders expect that.” The layoffs announced at this plant were seen as part of a larger corporate 

strategy with the disclosure of plans for additional plant closings in the region. 

In contrast to industrial restructuring as exemplified by the apparel plant closure in this community, 

most oil and gas activities by necessity locate where natural resources exist. Natural resource extraction, 

cyclical in nature, and ultimately subject to finite supply, has been and continues to be, socioeconomically 

significant in this area. There have been many social and economic effects of oil and gas development on 
21 

communities, families, and individuals in this Gulf of Mexico region. Though these activities have had 

variable impacts along the coast, direct impacts have been felt most sharply in the south Louisiana “core” 

(Wallace et al. 2001). Early oil and gas industry development provided new and unknown employment 

opportunities. The local economies, though benefiting tremendously from the industry in periods of 

growth, also experienced recessions during slowdowns. Communities grew rapidly while experiencing 

infrastructural strain due to industry needs and demands. Concentrated temporal scheduling of offshore 

workers, i.e. seven days on and seven days off, altered conventional family dynamics. Today, even in 

many coastal communities where agriculture is economically important, the oil industry permeates the 

economic and social systems. 

For decades, increased oil and gas production and activity has piqued the interests of researchers 

wanting to further their understanding of the impacts this natural resource extraction have on coastal 

communities in Louisiana. Evolving from simple land-based exploration and production platforms to 

technologically sophisticated offshore structures produced significant social changes and responses over 

the years. The industry changed from one dependent on its own internal supply system to one dependent 

on a multitude of suppliers. This created a vast network of related businesses that consequently involved 

and impacted nearly every community within the region (McKenzie et al. 1993). 

The importance of this interdependent network of suppliers and services in this economy, secondary 

and tertiary sector development, cannot be understated. The terms “secondary sector” and “tertiary 

sector” are used somewhat differently than in the economic literature. Unlike economists, sociologist 

Robert Gramling (personal communication: 2000) explains that the secondary sector is made up of those 

establishments whose activities directly support primary activities, and tertiary sector as those activities 

directly supporting the secondary, and thus indirectly, primary activities. Freudenburg (1992) defines 

secondary industries/sectors as those involving the transformation of raw materials into finished products, 

and tertiary industries/sectors as those involving working with humans or information rather than physical 

materials. Both of these sectors are not only necessary to support an economy, they are evidence of a 

mature economic structure; increased economic activity in a region gives rise to an increased demand for 

financial services and activities. We find Gramling’s perspective on secondary and tertiary sectors most 

germane for our study of a coastal region that has experienced firsthand the phenomenal growth of the oil 

and gas industry and the accompanying expansion of job opportunities in the secondary and tertiary 

sectors. As these sectors expand they make greater socioeconomic sustainability more likely. 

Growth of an important economic base activity like oil and gas should be accompanied by 

improvement in overall local economic conditions. Feagin (1985) found that cumulative advantages 

associated with oil industry development and subsequent infrastructural improvements attract additional 

economic activities. Linkages appear between local service industries and the export sector of oil and 

gas. Thus, while Miller and Bluestone (1988) found that employment growth in rural services sectors is 

linked to rural manufacturing, similar arguments can be made for the petroleum industry. 

Because of the well-known cyclical nature of the oil industry, there is also a socioeconomic cost that 

the region periodically pays. When growth in the industry abates and primary extractive activities 

decline, it follows that secondary and tertiary sectors will be negatively affected, because much of their 

profitability is directly and indirectly derived from a thriving primary activity. In an attempt to ensure 

their survival, business will cut costs, and one of the most immediate ways to accomplish this goal is a 

reduction in work force. At the time of the apparel plant closure, however, primary oil and gas activities 

were expanding; by necessity secondary and tertiary sector activities intensified as well. Along with this 

expansion, an increase in demand for labor should be apparent. 

In addition to the industrial characteristics of Abbeville, it is an interesting community to study 

because it is culturally unique. There is a strong presence within this community of those with “Cajun” 

ancestry. The Cajuns pride themselves as having a heritage that breeds stubbornness and toughness in 

times of turmoil and trouble, and who profess to enjoy close family ties that serve to bind them to the 

area. Unlike many other families across the U.S., Cajun family members tend to remain in the same 

locale year after year, and in many cases, generation after generation, thereby living in the same historical 

environmental context. They draw on the strength of their extended family in dealing with the problems 

of everyday life. These familial ties to community are thought to be socioeconomically significant, and 

have been shown to affect labor market outcomes. Although strong ties to family and friends may sustain 

workers if they become unemployed, strong ties may also make it difficult for those displaced workers to 

leave, instead opting for whatever substitute employment they can get locally, or within commuting 

distance (Fitchen 1991). 
22 

Answering multifaceted socioeconomic questions about a particular place requires an in-depth study 

of the social dynamics that contribute to the event in question. A community field study, traditionally an 

important way to obtain detailed qualitative information about the people who live there, provides the 

necessary data for in-depth analysis of this event. Gathering such data involves not only talking with 

those unemployed by the plant closure, but also with representatives of secondary and tertiary support 

sectors of the oil and gas industry, social service agencies, and community leaders. 

This study is the second of two case studies conducted in the same rural Louisiana town. In the 

summer and fall of 1997, as the apparel plant was announcing and beginning to implement its layoffs, one 

of the authors was helping to conduct guided conversations with residents of this community and 

surrounding area. The purpose of that first study was to explain the socioeconomic robustness of the 

community that seemed to be evident when examining decennial censuses of 1950 through 1990. 

Economically immersed in the oil and gas industry, one would expect to see volatile income distributions 

that mirrored the cyclical nature of oil and gas development activities. However, family income 

distributions over those forty years were relatively stable in comparison to many other oil-involved 

Louisiana coastal communities. Analyses of conversations from that study showed that the community 

was reasonably economically diversified. Along with the importance of the oil and gas industry, 

agriculture was significant, and the community served as the parish seat. The importance of the parish (or 

county) seat is identified by Beggs, et al. in Chapter 4. They find that the parish (county) seats in the Gulf 

Coast region were more socioeconomically resilient during periods of oil and gas industry slowdown and 

these places have higher number of professional services workers than other parishes (counties). From 

the initial 1997 study, and the interest generated with the announcement of plant layoffs and closure, 

came this project. 

Our research strategy is consistent with that suggested by the work of Lofland and Lofland (1995) in 

that we modified our focus as we carried out the project. As the study progressed, we discovered that 

examination of the primary issue, displaced workers’ labor market experiences after plant closure, 

revealed more than we had expected. In particular, the salience of gender of the displaced workers 

emerged as a very telling factor. According to Meloy (1994), determining a focus in qualitative research 

usually involves examining and reexamining the research context, changing one’s mind, and giving up 

preconceived notions of what is important. Other major issues that emerged in this study include the role 

of secondary and tertiary support sectors in providing post-displacement employment to displaced 

workers and the presence of other employment opportunities resulting from oil and gas expansion in the 

region. The questions that arose from these issues proved far more interesting than expected, and more 

difficult to answer. 

At the time of the apparel plant’s closure, the oil and gas industry was experiencing a period of 

expansion. Would a number of displaced workers be absorbed into the oil and gas industry, which 

includes secondary and tertiary support sectors, or would they find employment elsewhere? A separate 

question follows, though not related to the oil and gas industry per se, but rather post-displacement 

employment in general, concerning organizations (i.e., job training programs) funded by Trade 

Adjustment Assistance for Workers (TAA) of the Trade Act of 1974, and Federal Unemployment Tax 

Act of 1939, and responsible for training displaced workers. Would those organizations offer, or direct 

workers into, job training programs in which skills and/or education would be acquired that would make 

these displaced workers employable not only in sectors of the oil and gas industry, but perhaps others in 

which greater economic returns could be realized? 

Next, we review the literature that has a bearing on our research focus. We begin by reviewing 

literature on plant closures in the United States in general, then focus on research that has addressed 

displaced women in the labor force. Next we examine the impact of the oil and gas industry in the region 

to show its social and economic importance in communities where it has evolved over the years. 

Providing a brief history of its development over time and space will help illuminate labor market issues 

that relate to a gendered work force. Then we explain how the study was designed, how we dealt with 

sampling issues, and how data were collected. We explain the relevance of specific questions generated 

both before and during the course of guided conversations with respondents. Analyses of data, including 

narrative, will be explained, and following Wolcott’s (1990) advice, information provided in this 

qualitative research effort will be framed in such a way as to enable readers to reach their own 

conclusions about descriptions, analyses and interpretations. Finally, we link labor market experiences of 

displaced workers to labor market actions of the oil and gas industry, and those of job-training programs. 
23 

We examine whether sociocultural, individual, or structural factors might affect labor market outcomes 

and synthesize our findings. 

3.2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

3.2.1 Structural Unemployment 

The issue of social and economic stability in American communities has been the subject of much 

sociological attention. Among problems noted in rural areas have been instability of employment linked 

to the boom and bust cycles of many natural resource industries, patterns of dramatic in and out 

migration, and the draining away of “human capital” (younger, highly trained people) during these 

periods of outmigration (Lovejoy and Krannich 1982; Bluestone and Harrison 1986; Wilkinson 1986; 

Krannich and Luloff 1991). Increasingly, another dilemma faced by individuals in communities across 

the U.S., regardless of location, has been structural unemployment. This type of unemployment occurs 

when workers lose their jobs, either by technological change that has made obsolete their particular job, 

or through relocation of capital. In contrast to cyclical unemployment due to a downturn in the normal 

business cycle of a market economy, structural unemployment is viewed by some as a chronic problem 

resulting from fundamental changes in the operation of international markets (Perrucci et al. 1988; 

Staudohar and Brown 1987). 

This loss of employment results in displaced workers, the standard definition of which is used by 

government and many private researchers and developed in conjunction with the Displaced Worker 

Surveys, commissioned by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in 1984. Analysts at the BLS defined 

displaced workers as those who, through no fault of their own, have lost jobs in which they have several 

years tenure and a considerable investment in skill development (Flaim and Sehgal 1985). During the 

1980's, much of the displacement literature focused on plant closings and mass layoffs in the durable 

goods manufacturing sector and the growth of a low-wage service economy. Unemployment was viewed 

as a function of conscious investment decisions, with major corporations securing more profits by 

diversifying into new product or service lines, and new overseas ventures being made possible through 

the increased mobility of capital (Bluestone and Harrison 1982). 

3.2.2 Plant Closures 

Problems such as these found throughout the U.S. exist because the economic fate of many such 

communities is often in the hands of corporate entities whose headquarters are located at great distances 

from the locations where the consequences of their decisions will be felt (Carroll 1995). Eberts (1984:65) 

believed that decisions about plant locations, expansions, reductions, or closings, are made “by 

...metropolitan people, institutions, and communities rather than the leadership... of local communities 

and control.” Falk and Lyson (1988) point out that plants that opened in the rural south are “branch 

plants.” Such plants are built at the end of a product life cycle, after the manufacturing process has been 

routinized to the extent that tasks can be performed by unskilled workers trained on the job to do discrete 

activities. Distance from product origin and innovation removes them from corporate decision-making. 

Fitchen (1991) argues that rural economies are increasingly losing control over the firms and the mix of 

firms that make up a major segment of their economic base. This loss of factories and firms has more 

deeply impacted rural communities in the last twenty years than has the loss of farms, because small 

communities were frequently losing not just one plant, but several. The term “local management” may be 

a misnomer in rural manufacturing, as these personnel are “local” only in that they administer the local 

plant, not in the sense of being of the local community. 

Few would argue that in any dynamic economy, capital investments must be retired at the end of their 

useful lives and replaced by more productive investments. The industrial structure and its geographic 

distribution respond to a variety of powerful economic forces, including changes in prices, consumer 

preferences, production technologies, and international trade competition. The opening of new plants and 

closing of obsolete plants are part of this process (Farber 1996; Littman and Lee 1983); indeed, many 

firms have found that the way to ensure their survival is to cut labor costs, add flexibility to the 

production process, and reduce tax liability by moving from a particular location, or threatening to do so 

(Staudohar and Brown 1987). But studies also show that companies restructure in favorable as well as 

unfavorable economic conditions, when reaping profits as well as when experiencing losses (U.S. 

Department of Labor, Office of the American Workplace 1995; Farber 1996). 
24 

Historically, the movements of large firms in this country have been away from unionized and 

relatively better paid labor and toward places where they can take advantage of unorganized and cheaper 

labor (Cobbe 1979; Falk and Lyson 1988). Part of the motivation today for companies to move to sites 

overseas is that there are higher rates of unemployment and consequently a lower rate of labor force 

participation than in the U.S. A larger potential pool of workers and excess labor supply puts a downward 

pressure on wages (Young and Newton 1980). The global economy is now dominated by multinational 

corporations which have branches, subsidiaries, or joint ventures strategically located in many countries. 

Ease (and therefore threat) of capital mobility is additionally a powerful instrument increasingly used by 

corporations to exact favors from state and local governments. Fierce competition ensues when a 

corporation announces plans to open a manufacturing plant, and communities find themselves offering 

better tax incentives and infrastructural improvements in an effort to attract plants that are expected to 

provide local employment opportunities. Yet even after making community sacrifices to do so, there is 

no assurance that the company will stay (Haas 1985). 

3.2.3 The Case of Abbeville 

Capital flight is exemplified in this study. According to the Meridional, the local newspaper, the 

apparel plant which is the focus of this study began large-scale operations in the community in late 1990. 

Community and state efforts to attract the plant included specific tax exemptions, investment incentives, 

public grants, reduction of its utility rates, and other special benefits provided under the Louisiana 

Enterprise Zone Act (January 21, 1998). The facility was to be operated as an integral part of an 

approved economic development zone to reduce local unemployment for a significant period of time, 

specifically for not less than fifteen years1

. Yet half-way through those fifteen years spokespersons for 

the plant announced it would cease operations. The move was necessary to reduce labor costs so the 

company could remain globally competitive. A local newspaper article illustrated this, reporting that 

sewing could be done in Honduras at a cost of 35 cents to 50 cents per hour, compared to the $10 per hour 

and more paid to many of the plant’s Louisiana employees. 

3.2.4 Manufacturing Plant Closures in the Global Economy 

A primary explanation behind this phenomenon is the decline of American corporate profits due to 

fierce international competition in the production of manufactured goods since the 1970s. This 

effectively ended the United States’ manufacturing hegemony in the world market it enjoyed after World 

War II. Technological advances and heightened competition of a more open world economy continue to 

change a mass production system that once guaranteed a rising standard of living, if not job security, to 

those it employed. Nowhere is this transformation more evident than in manufacturing, which has 

experienced an absolute and relative employment decline (Moore 1996). It is estimated that by 1990, 

more than 20 percent of the output of U.S. firms was being produced by foreign workers. This percentage 

has undoubtedly increased throughout the 1990's as companies continue to shift production operations 

overseas (Reich 1991; Schultze, 2004). 

In 1986 the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) of the U.S. Congress published a study entitled 

“Technology and Structural Unemployment: Reemploying Displaced Adults.” Their study indicates that: 

In the past few years, millions of American workers have lost their jobs because of 

structural changes in the U.S. and world economies. Some of them—especially younger 

workers with skills in demand or the right educational background—have little trouble 

finding new jobs. Others—hundreds of thousands a year—remain out of work for many 

weeks or months, even for years. Many of the displaced are middle-aged unskilled 

manufacturing workers, with long and stable job histories (Perrucci et al. 1988). 

The potential cost of displacement and subsequent job search is enormous. Bluestone and Harrison 

(1982) estimate that in the 1970's alone between 450,000 to 650,000 jobs were lost as a result of 

 

1 The company’s failure to comply with its obligations and subsequent litigation affected the collection of some 

data for this study (see our discussion of the study sample).
25 

movement of plant sites to foreign countries. Millions of blue-collar workers, mostly older white men, 

those with the longest tenure and in the highest paid jobs, were reported to have suffered the greatest loss 

of “good jobs” in that decade (Ong and Mar 1992; Harrison and Bluestone 1990; Form 1985; Bluestone 

and Harrison 1982). Between 1987 and 1992, 5.6 million U.S. workers lost their jobs due to plant closure 

or relocation, with fewer than half securing full-time reemployment by January, 1992. Nearly half of 

those displaced workers who found full-time reemployment did so at reduced pay, two out of three losing 

in excess of 20 percent (Herzog and Schlottmann 1995). Finally, it is estimated that more than 8 million 

workers lost their jobs between January 1995 and December 1997 because of downsizing and 

displacement; this despite a robust economy and a low unemployment rate (U.S. Department of Labor 

1999). Therefore, it is not hard to understand how plant closings impose tremendous adjustment costs on 

particular economic actors: displaced workers and their families, local governments, and local businesses 

linked to the closing plants. The results include socioeconomic hardships for displaced workers, 

increased unemployment, decay of the local employment base, and fiscal distress for the community 

(Littman and Lee 1983). 

3.2.5 Restructuring of the Textile Industry 

In the labor-intensive textile industry alone, Gaventa and Smith (1991) estimate that between 1970 

and 1985, 155,000 jobs were eliminated, a decline of 25 percent, as companies continued to seek lowest 

possible production costs. Textile and apparel production has increasingly become incorporated into 

peripheral areas and markets of the capitalist world economy, be they in regions of the U.S. (Bluestone 

and Harrison 1982) or in the Third World (Chirot 1977). Over one hundred years ago in the U.S., the 

rural South offered rock-bottom production costs to investors wanting to best their northern competitors. 

The Carolinas and north Georgia, homes to impoverished farm populations willing to serve as cheap labor 

(wages nearly one-third lower than that of the north), gave southern textile manufacturers the advantage 

they sought (Gaventa and Smith 1991). The results included either permanent closures of some northern 

textile producers, or the movement south by others. 

After World War II, the apparel industry began its move south, joining the textile industry already 

there. In 1950, about two-thirds of all apparel workers in the U.S. were employed in the Northeast. By 

1974, 44.2 percent of all apparel workers were in the south. New York City alone lost 28 percent of its 

apparel employment between 1958 and 1970. It was during the 1960's, however, that apparel and textile 

manufacturers set the stage for what would later make them vulnerable to international competition. 

While other manufacturing industries significantly increased their labor productivity through 

technological innovation, textile and apparel manufacturers persisted in their reliance on low-wage labor 

and failed to update the production process (Gaventa and Smith 1991). 

Today, textile and apparel production in the newly industrializing countries of the Third World 

continues to rise rapidly, encroaching on markets once claimed by U.S. producers. The textile industry, 

once seen as salvation of rural areas in the U.S., now sounds a death knell for some southern 

communities. Investors from all over the world, including the United States, are attracted to textile 

production in many locations like Hong Kong, Korea, and Central America for some of the same reasons 

that entrepreneurs were once lured to the U.S. south: the availability of cheap labor, the low skill 

requirements, relatively small capital outlays required to begin production, and the expanding markets. 

The labor cost differential between the United States and less industrialized nations is significant. In 

1972, clothing industry labor costs averaged $3.26 per hour in the United States, 94.3¢ in Japan, 44.4¢ in 

Hong Kong, 17.4¢ in Taiwan, and 12.5¢ in Colombia. The result, according to the American Textile 

Manufacturers Institute, is an estimate that from 1981 to 1984, 231 textile plants closed (Gaventa and 

Smith 1991). A New York Times article reported that in the 1980's, eight hundred textile plants 

disappeared (Barmash 1987). For every billion yards of fabric and apparel imported, one hundred 

thousand American jobs are lost, according to the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress 

(1987). This major restructuring of the U.S. textile industry, due to global competition and concentration 

in retailing, included numerous mergers. Surviving firms employed long-delayed technological upgrades 

and worker downsizing to remain viable. Flexibility of production enables owners to control workers 

through an expanded labor pool, outsourcing, and technological advances that decrease the need for 

workers (Schulman and Anderson 1999). 
26 

3.2.6 Government Policy and Plant Closures 

Compounding the U.S. situation, governments in developing countries typically view their domestic 

textile and apparel industries as a cornerstone of the industrialization process and aggressively protect 

them through tariffs, quotas, and in some cases outright bans on the importation of certain products 

(Leiter et al.1991). The existence of export processing zones in developing countries offers tax, labor, and 

environmental concessions for the assembly of products by multinationals with cheap Third World labor. 

In addition, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1993, designed to promote trade 

between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada is viewed by some economists as being a significant factor in the 

loss of U.S. jobs, the number of which is unknown. One special NAFTA unemployment program, 

NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance (NAFTA TAA) reported that as of April 2000, more than 

232,375 U.S. workers had been certified as having lost their jobs due to the agreement. This number 

reflects only those who meet very narrow criteria; workers who produce a product (rather than a service) 

that was directly affected by NAFTA can qualify. 

Government policymakers largely shape the politics of plant closings in the U.S. At the national, 

state, and local levels, examples can be found of public policymakers intervening in a plant closing, either 

reactively or proactively, to shape the outcome of the adjustment process. Because a multinational 

corporation is less subject to local pressures and in most cases less concerned about an individual plant in 

a distant community, in most cases, the end policy goal will be to minimize negative consequences after 

the closing occurs, through reemployment centers, retraining programs, and other forms of government 

assistance (Portz 1990; Wendling 1984). The newly unemployed typically require job search assistance, 

income support, and retraining, and policymakers try to offset these problems through programs designed 

for the targeted group. 

3.2.7 Community-Wide Effects of Plant Closure 

It is evident that the impact of disinvestment and displacement affects more than individual workers 

and their families; many ripple effects occur in the community as well. Primary effects are felt by those 

closest to the production unit that ceases operations. Displaced employees lose salaries and wages, 

pensions; supplier firms lose contracts; government loses corporate income and commercial property tax 

revenue. These in turn create secondary effects including decreased retail purchases in the community, a 

reduction in earnings at supplier plants, and increased unemployment in other sectors. Tertiary effects in 

the form of increased demand for public assistance and social services, reduced personal tax receipts, and 

eventually layoffs in other industries are common. A shrinking tax base affects school budgets, the 

quality of police and fire protection, municipal support for libraries and museums, and for parks and 

playgrounds. Bluestone and Harrison (1982) argue that what begins as behind-closed-doors company 

decision to shut down a production facility often ends up affecting everyone in town. 

Stories abound describing the effects of plant closures on individuals and communities. When a New 

Jersey cutlery manufacturer closed down in 1978, 760 manufacturing jobs were lost. Beyond that 

number, the state AFL-CIO estimated the city lost an additional 468 jobs in stores, banks, bus service, 

luncheonettes, taverns, gas stations, and other local businesses, effectively removing more than $14 

million in purchasing power from the local economy. Charities suffered as well: annual employee and 

corporate donations from the closed manufacturer totaling $33,000 was absent from that years’ charity 

drives (Bluestone and Harrison 1982). 

Dowling’s (1992) study on the closure of a furnace factory which shut down in the small rural town 

of Red Bud, Illinois, population 2,900, also demonstrates the effects such an event can have on a local 

economy. The local union estimated that in addition to the 800 plant employees, 1,200 support workers 

from suppliers to truckers lost jobs; and Knapp (1995), in his study of the effects of industrial plant 

closings on Pittsburg, Kansas, found strong downward ripple effects on construction and retail trade. 

That town’s economic troubles also were associated with rising use of public assistance, increased mental 

health problems, and declines in population, civic philanthropy, and marriage and birth rates. Research 

on plant closures recognizes that some of the multiplier effects are felt immediately, while others take 

time to work through the economy. If the economy is expanding, some effects will quickly dissipate, 

while others may become a permanent part of that community, particularly if the local economy is 

stagnant. 
27 

3.2.8 Reemployment of Displaced Workers 

One of the key elements in the plant closure debate is the reemployment experience of displaced 

workers. By definition, displaced workers are involuntary job losers, and many encounter a number of 

obstacles that limit the effectiveness of job search. If the local labor market is relatively large, as 

evidenced by numerous employers and therefore numerous employment opportunities, labor can be 

highly mobile among a number of alternatives. A small local labor market, in contrast, constrains 

mobility (Wendling 1984). Displaced workers are expected to adapt to changes in market conditions by 

concentrating their efforts to find jobs in those industries that offer the best prospects, even if it means 

switching industries (Fallick 1993). 

Studies show that displacement reduces average earnings because substantial numbers experience 

spells of unemployment or long-term unemployment, or increases in part-time employment. The greater 

part of the earnings loss is due to lower reemployment wages. Searching for comparable new jobs after 

displacement in this restructuring job market is a difficult process, and some suggest that it rarely results 

in better opportunities (Bound and Dresser 1999; Spalter-Roth and Deitch 1999). Industrial and 

manufacturing jobs have disappeared, and service jobs with lower pay and less unionization have 

replaced them. In many rural counties/parishes, the service sector is heavily weighted toward the lowpaying and insecure retail jobs rather than professional service jobs. The better service sector jobs that do 

exist in many rural communities are with the school districts, hospitals, and local governments because 

they provide desirable health and retirement benefits (Fitchen 1991). 

It is understood that economic change affects various segments of the work force unevenly. 

Differences in color, age, gender, skill, and economic sector mean dissimilar chances of losing jobs and 

finding new ones. Perrucci et al. (1997) argue that for some, job loss is a temporary economic setback 

until a new job is found comparable to the last, but for others, long-term unemployment is the result, or 

significant income loss even when reemployed. The penalty for inadequate formal education can be even 

worse. Until a plant closes, even individuals with little education are able to bring home a good salary 

because of their longevity at the plant and their adequate performance there. Once displacement occurs, 

limited and dated education now renders them barely able to compete for decent jobs, or to perform 

satisfactorily if they get such a job in today’s labor market (Fitchen 1991). 

A 1989 closure of a manufacturer of health care products employing 500 people in rural New York 

state underscores this point. Plant workers lived in fifty-five communities in eleven surrounding counties, 

including some small and poor communities with little other employment available nearby. Most of the 

displaced workers were women who had worked at the plant for years, averaging about $8 an hour in 

wages with benefits. The reasons given for the shutdown were the usual: the need to reduce overhead 

costs in order to maintain a competitive position in the market. The company transferred operations to 

Mexico, where the company would pay female workers $1.25 an hour without benefits. A New York 

economic development official remarked that “There was no way the workers in New York could have 

given up enough pay to keep the jobs here” (Fitchen 1991). At the time of closure, the job situation 

outside the plant was not very good. Most of the jobs advertised in the four cities within a one hour 

commute would not pay enough to offset extra costs in transportation and child care. By the time of 

closure, those workers who had found new employment were earning considerably less than they had 

earned at the health care products plant (Fitchen 1991). 

Pay scales of manufacturing firms that close down will probably never be duplicated, either in the 

remaining manufacturing or in retail and other service jobs. Research shows that there are sizable 

numbers of displaced workers who find new jobs, but in positions that pay considerably less and require 

much less in the way of education and skill (Leana and Feldman 1995). The challenge that displaced 

workers face, therefore, is to maximize their labor market opportunities. Just as certain negative effects 

resulting from downsizing or departure of manufacturing plants are predictable, so too is the reality that 

certain groups of people are especially vulnerable in the process. For labor markets to work well for 

anyone, they must provide clear and reliable methods of access to jobs and advancement through them. 

Ideally, entry-level employment should prepare workers for, and connect them to, future opportunities; 

there should be predictable, fair, and well-known methods of access to decent-paying jobs; and 

incremental moves and skill development on the job should allow for routine career advancement. This 

requires complete information on labor market opportunities, strong systems of training on the job, and a 

good understanding of the relationship between the skills required for one job and those required for the 

next (Dresser and Rogers 1998). 
28 

3.2.9 Gender and Displacement 

Historically, men and women employed in manufacturing work in different industries and 

occupations. Men typically work as craftsmen or skilled workers in “heavy,” capital intensive industries, 

such as the steel and auto industries and machine tools manufacturing. Women more frequently perform 

unskilled or semiskilled work in labor intensive, nondurable goods manufacturing, like the apparel/textile 

complex, and more recently in food processing and electronic assembly (Rosen 1987). 

Different opportunities in labor markets determine the options that are available to men and women 

when they are displaced. With respect to blue-collar workers, research results indicate that the period of 

unemployment following job loss from a plant closing is longer for women than for men, Studies also 

shows that women are less likely than men to be reemployed (Perrucci et al. 1997; Congressional Budget 

Office 1993; Perrucci et al. 1988). Researchers have also found wage losses relative to pre-layoff wages 

to be greater for displaced blue-collar women than men (Spalter-Roth and Deitch 1999; Schlack 1991; 

Perrucci et al. 1988; Madden 1987; Podgursky and Swaim 1987). 

There are two exceptions to the above studies. A study by Howland and Peterson (1988) found that 

among displaced manufacturing workers, women experienced less wage loss than men after controlling 

for age, race, education, years worked in job prior to layoff, and labor market conditions. The authors 

speculated that smaller financial loss for women may result either from women’s lower pre-layoff wage, 

which may be easier to recover, or from greater likelihood of women than men to work in clerical jobs in 

the manufacturing sector, therefore their possession of skills would be valued in the service sector of the 

economy. Another study of three plant closings in Indiana in the late 1980's found that women and men 

did not differ in their chances of reemployment. Though both men and women suffered wage loss when 

they were reemployed, women lost less because of their lower absolute wage level prior to the plant 

closings (Perrucci et al. 1997). 

One of the most important issues in this study is the potential significance of the oil and gas industry 

in post-displacement employment. Evaluating that role requires looking back in time at the development 

of the industry in the coastal region of Louisiana, and gaining an understanding of its importance to 

individuals, families and communities. We must look carefully at how oil and gas development activities 

have influenced local labor markets, not only through primary activities, but in the developing secondary 

and tertiary support sectors. In the next section we discuss the methodological strategy for this study. 

3.3 METHODOLOGY

A principle argument for qualitative case or field study research is that it provides a way of studying 

human events and actions in their natural surroundings, allowing examination of social action in its most 

complete form. A good case study can identify actors’ motives and understandings of situations that lead 

to specific decisions and/or events. The researcher gathers knowledge of societal processes by directly 

observing them. As Feagin et al.(1991:23) note, “qualitative research exemplified in the case study 

usually brings us closer to real human beings and everyday life.” 

Case study research was utilized extensively in the pre-World War II period, particularly by members 

of the Chicago School of Sociology; it played a central role in such classic sociological investigations as 

Lynd and Lynd’s (1929) Middletown, the study by Warner and Lunt (1941) of Yankee City, and Whyte’s 

(1943) Street Corner Society. After a long lapse in interest, it is again gaining some prominence in recent 

years (Briggs 1995). 

We use a qualitative methodological foundation to answer questions about the impacts of the plant 

closure on the lives of displaced workers, their families, and community, and the role of the oil and gas 

industry in the community. Our experience with an earlier case study based on this community, and our 

involvement with at other projects dealing with socioeconomics of the region, suggest that the best way to 

investigate the impact of the plant closure for this study was to again collect data using the case study 

method. This study uses a “guided conversation” which is described below. 

Before designing this study, we visited the local library in the community where the plant had been 

located, and reviewed local newspaper archives. This was an important step in understanding how the 

media treated the issue, and too, provided information about the opinions of plant employees and other 

community members, and about efforts to assist displaced employees. We discuss in more detail the 

actual newspaper coverage of the plant closure later in the chapter. 
29 

3.3.1 Data Collection Method: Guided Conversations 

We conducted guided conversations with those people we felt were knowledgeable about the issues in 

this study. A guided conversation has a less structured format than what we generally consider to be an 

interview. Guided conversations are usually conducted face-to-face, but not always. They consist of a 

discussion between researcher and respondent--a discussion that has been “guided” by the researcher in 

an attempt to not only develop a better understanding of the issue, but to perhaps uncover other issues that 

at first are not apparent. Although we used open-ended questions to provide some initial structure for all 

respondents, the ensuing conversation was guided by the respondents to a large degree. Lofland and 

Lofland (1995:85) consider the guide or form “.... to be a list of things to be sure to ask about when 

talking to the person...” Thus, by using the same guide for all respondents, the researcher maximizes the 

likelihood that essential data are collected in a systematic manner. 

A guided conversation is a type of “discovery” process which can prove to be invaluable to the 

researcher. But, it has drawbacks. As with open-ended questionnaires, one generally can expect a wealth 

of information, but as in all research, anticipated success may not be forthcoming. For example, no 

matter how carefully probed in the guided conversation, some respondents just do not seem to have a 

whole lot to say. Thankfully, that was seldom the case in this study because most respondents had quite a 

lot to say. Furthermore, recall by respondents, problematic in some studies, did not appear to be an issue 

in this study because the plant closure occurred less than a year prior to the start of the guided 

conversations. 

Although providing some structure within the guided conversations is important, it was not possible 

for one instrument to adequately address the issues in this study with these four disparate groups, rather it 

required a measuring tool that varied to some extent, so that each group’s perspective could be more fully 

understood. Therefore, a guided conversation “form” used with the displaced workers focuses on the 

economic impacts of the plant closure on the workers and their families, and labor market experiences 

after displacement. This form also contained questions necessary to collect demographic data on this 

group for inclusion in our analyses. A second form “guided” the remaining respondent groups in this 

study, those representatives of companies engaged in secondary and tertiary support of the oil and gas 

industry, community leaders, and social service agencies. This second form guides respondents on 

several issues, but the main thrust was two-fold: first, to ascertain perceptions of community impact of the 

apparel plant closure and resulting consequences for displaced workers; and second, to discover their 

perceptions of the socioeconomic importance of the oil and gas industry in the community and 

surrounding area. 

3.3.2 Sampling Frame 

Having decided a format to use to elicit information, our next decision was to determine who in this 

community was most informed about the plant closure. For the purpose of this study, respondents were 

categorized as belonging to one of several groups. The first group consisted of displaced workers. The 

second group was comprised of representatives of companies who are directly or indirectly linked to oil 

and gas development. Those in this second group consisted of oil and gas producer services that directly 

support primary activities, a secondary support sector, and those other local businesses or firms that were 

indirectly linked to that industry through tertiary support, including company owners or managers, site 

supervisors, or human resource directors. Community leaders are found in the third group. These people 

were elected officials at the local, parish, and state level, or individuals who may have been local 

influential business leaders. The final group that we included in this study were individuals within the 

social service and support agencies located in the area. 

Before we discuss the rationale for the selection of each of the above group’s respondents, it is 

important to note that these are key “stakeholder” groups. Originally, the word “stakeholder” was used to 

designate an individual who literally held stakes, but had no direct interest in them, as in a person 

entrusted with the stakes of two or more persons betting against one another and charged with the duty of 

delivering the stakes to the winner (Gramling, 1995). By the mid 1980's, management literature was 

using the concept in quite opposite meanings of this original definition. Freeman (1984:iv) defined 

stakeholders as “groups of individuals who affect or are affected by organizational performance.” 

Alternatively, stakeholders have been defined as “...individuals, collections of people, or an organization 

that have a stake...and who may affect an organization or activity and/or be affected by such...and who are 

defined by their relationship to an organization or activity....” (Gramling et al. 1995). Displaced plant 
30 

employees, secondary and tertiary support sectors of the oil and gas industry, elected officials, and social 

service agencies, are key stakeholders who can offer insights to understanding the dynamics of the social 

processes that may operate in an event such as a plant shutdown. 

3.3.2.1 Purposive Sampling 

We used two nonprobability sampling techniques in this study, purposive and snowball sampling. 

Purposive sampling was used because we were interested in conducting guided conversations with 

different groups of stakeholders in a small community. Within these groups we planned to seek 

knowledgeable individuals about the issue in question. Purposive sampling is appropriate when there are 

one or more predefined groups from whom to sample. 

We compiled part of the sample using up-to-date phone, city and parish directories, and membership 

lists. First we obtained names of companies and businesses with direct and indirect linkages to the oil and 

gas industry (secondary and tertiary sectors) from the 1997 BellSouth Yellow Page listings found in the 

community. Companies with direct linkages to the oil and gas industry, those that are part of the 

secondary support sector for the industry, include air and boat transportation; boat leasing, towing, and 

marine supplies; chemicals; oilfield contractors, hauling, equipment, supplies, general services, drilling 

mud, and pipe; and metal fabricators. Approximately sixty different listings for companies in the 

secondary support sector are found in the 1997 BellSouth Yellow Page directory. Representatives from 

indirect linkages to the industry, or tertiary support sector, included accountants, attorneys, banking 

personnel, realtors, and an abstracting company. Sixty-five total listings or names for those types of 

companies and individuals appear in the 1997 BellSouth Yellow Page directory. 

To develop a list of community leaders, we referred to city council and parish police jury lists. These 

lists included city officials, members of the parish school board, members of the parish police jury, and 

the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. An alphabetized list of oil and gas stakeholders and 

community leaders was made, and from this list we systematically selected names of potential 

respondents. For example, out of the sixty-five listings included in tertiary support, thirty-nine are 

attorneys. Therefore, we made the decision to sample every fifth attorney. The same decision was made 

in the category of “oilfield service,” part of the secondary support sector. Oilfield service has eighteen 

different companies listed; we chose to try to sample every other company. The rest of the categories 

were small enough that we decided to speak to as many as we could. 

A list of the third group of stakeholders, social service agencies, was again obtained from the 1997 

BellSouth Yellow Pages. There were eleven social service agencies and organizations listed. They 

included local assistance groups, city and parish organizations and local offices of state and federal 

programs. Because there were only eleven, each was contacted to arrange a face-to-face guided 

conversation with a suitable representative. This list eventually grew to sixteen because state agencies 

exist outside the community that were active in offering services to displaced workers. Including the 

local Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) and vocational technical school in this group provided a better 

understanding of the number of displaced workers who sought job re-training and re-education and the 

types of programs and classes that were available to them. These widely know support mechanisms 

within the local community add an important information source for this study. Exploring the role of 

organized community support, whether on a “locally-based” level, or on a state and federal level, in 

providing services to displaced workers and their families gives a more complete picture of the issue. 

As stated earlier, purposive sampling was used for these three groups of respondents and agency 

representatives, because it was already generally known who (or what organization/agency) would be 

contacted. In the case of the organization and agency respondents, our study group was actually a census 

or 100 percent sample. Our knowledge of contacts was due, in part, to our presence in the community for 

the earlier study of Abbeville as a resilient community. As in snowball sampling, the other type of 

nonprobability sampling used for this study, we cannot be sure that our sample represents the population 

well. Of course, in the case of the agency census, our approach ensures that all organizations are 

represented. In addition, the limitations of nonprobability sampling impede our ability to generalize to the 

larger population. However, because this is an exploratory study and because our interest is more in 

discovering social processes associated with labor displacement than in precisely characterizing the 

population, such sampling techniques are appropriate. 
31 

3.3.2.2 Snowball Sampling 

We use snowball sampling to select the final group of respondents, the displaced workers. This group 

consists of the plant workers who were notified of the apparel plant closure in August 1997, and either 

quit prior to the closure or who were eventually laid off (displaced) at the plant by the spring of 1998.2

 

Snowball sampling is a method through which the researcher develops an ever-increasing set of sample 

observations that “ . . . provides a means of accessing vulnerable and more impenetrable social 

groupings” (Atkinson and Flint, 2001). Investigators frequently choose this method when it is unknown 

who the appropriate respondents are for a particular issue. This was the case in this study. The apparel 

plant did not provide a list of employees and several inquiries made to local and state agencies about the 

availability of such a list had no success. As Miller (1986:24) suggests most succinctly concerning her 

use of snowball sampling in her analysis of female street hustlers in Milwaukee, “The justification for the 

technique is that, whatever its limitations, without its use the study could probably not have been done at 

all.” Done well, a snowball sample provides the range of variation in a population if not the distribution 

of that variation. 

Our sample began with a list of key “informants” whose names were drawn from several resources. 

Local newspaper coverage of the impending plant layoff provided several names. This included 

newspapers from August until late fall of 1997. Interestingly, the best key informants turned out to be 

college students attending a local university where one of the researchers was teaching. The researcher 

explained, in general terms, the purpose of the research. Twenty-seven students provided names of 

displaced workers they either knew personally, or who were known by other family members or friends. 

Due to the racial diversity of these students, the probability of the racially diversity of their contacts made 

them especially useful. 

Again, the primary purpose of using these key informants was to provide names of persons who were 

employed at the plant when the layoff was announced. However, some of the informants themselves, 

those whose names we gathered from the newspaper reports, became part of the study when they offered 

to participate in the guided conversations. We believe that by using different resources for obtaining 

names of key informants, resulting in a more diverse group of respondents, strengthened the internal 

validity of this study. Beginning with a list of forty key informants representing various factions in the 

community, we began to make contact and talk with those people. We asked them to suggest names of 

additional people who were at the plant and who might also be willing to talk with us, thus achieving a 

“snowball” effect. 

As guided conversations were held with displaced workers utilizing snowball sampling, we became 

increasingly aware that one segment of displaced workers missing from the sample were those workers of 

Southeast Asian, or Indochina, origin. Their presence at the apparel plant was not insignificant; other 

displaced workers alluded to them in the course of the conversations. It was important that they become 

part of the sample, but making connections in order to gather information was more difficult with this 

group of displaced workers. It was nearly a year after the first guided conversations held with displaced 

workers that we made a connection with a key informant in the Asian community. A student attending 

college where one of the researchers was teaching provided invaluable assistance and interpretation, 

enabling guided conversations with eighteen displaced workers of Asian origin. In analyses of 

conversations, we ascertained numerous differences and therefore make comparisons between, these two 

groups of displaced workers, but a couple of points are in order. 

First, there is a temporal question; one groups’ guided conversations took place a full twelve months 

after the others’. That has to be considered when assessing labor market experiences after plant closure 

and, too, we did not determine their citizenship status. Whether or not they are naturalized citizens may 

be significant in issues such as those in this study. Secondly, one should be cautious when making 

conclusions about data that are derived from a subsample comprised of non-native English speaking 

respondents. Even with the assistance of an interpreter, valuable information can be lost in translation. 

The questions asked of this group of respondents were posed to them in their native language, not 

English. Also, in two instances, our interpreter had to be assisted by someone else because he is Laotian, 

the two respondents were Vietnamese, and language differences required another individual to be 

 

2

 We include those who quit the plant in this study because they chose to leave on their own volition due to 

the announcement made by the company. In effect, they were displaced as well. 
32 

conversant in both, although we certainly could not tell. One more point needs to be made about this 

group of displaced workers. For practical purposes in this study, we have grouped together Laotians and 

Vietnamese into one identifiable group, Asians, when making comparisons with non-Asians. Because it’s 

such a small sample, delineating between the two groups was not practical. We realize that differences 

exist between these two ethnically distinct groups, and one should not treat both groups as a single entity, 

but any differences that exist between them are not captured within the framework of this study. 

Though primarily female and residents of Vermilion Parish, the question remains whether this sample 

of forty-eight displaced workers is representative of the apparel plant’s displaced workers. In an effort to 

answer that question, we attempted to obtain demographic data on this group from the Louisiana 

Department of Labor. A local supervisor in the Department of Labor informed us that although they could 

have collected those data on site, they did not do so, and furthermore this information was not supplied to 

them by the employer. This was confirmed by another supervisor in the state office who stated she 

regretted they had not collected demographic data on the displaced workers, for it would have been an 

invaluable database. Both agreed that the “great” majority of displaced workers at this location were 

female, because most of the positions entailed sewing, typically a female job. The only jobs that had a 

few more males than females were the dyeing operations. Overall within the plant, there “was a good mix 

of Caucasian, Black, and Vietnamese workers.” 

3.3.3 The Respondents 

Table 3.1 contains information on the number of guided conversations from each of the four 

respondent groups. Initially, one hundred four conversations were held; five were omitted from the 

analysis because though they are stakeholders in the community, they are indirectly linked to the oil and 

gas industry and are neither part of the secondary or tertiary support sectors. Therefore, ninety-nine 

guided conversations remain. Of those, sixty-two were held face-to-face and thirty-seven were conducted 

on the telephone. Seventy-eight were completed in the summer of 1999, from June through the end of 

August, and three were obtained in January 2000. The other eighteen were completed in September 2000. 

Though we attempted to tape record the guided conversations at first, the poor quality of the resulting tape 

discouraged further use. Therefore, none of the conversations were taped, and instead notes were taken 

by hand. Upon returning from the field or completion of the telephone call, the notes were immediately 

deciphered and logged into a personal computer. As shown in Table 3.1, forty-eight guided conversations 

were completed with displaced workers (fourty-four were women), sixteen secondary support sector and 

fifteen tertiary support sector conversations were held, sixteen social service agencies conversations were 

completed, and four were held with community leaders. 

Table 3.1 

 

Categories and Numbers of Respondents 

Category of Respondent # Interviewed 

Displaced Workers 

Oil/Gas (Secondary sector) 

Oil/Gas (Tertiary sector) 

Social Service/Educ. Programs 

Community Leaders 

48 

16 

15 

16 

4 

As an aside, when we began to contact potential respondents within the four groups, we became 

aware of an interesting situation regarding the plant closure; one which affected our ability to gather data 

from the group of community leaders. In January 1998, the city filed a lawsuit over the ownership of the 

property where the apparel plant had been located and the building itself. Both the city and the plant 

claimed ownership of the property and building; the city claiming that the plant had failed to comply with 

its agreement to remain in the community for not less than fifteen years. Apparently, when the plant’s 

corporate headquarters and the city originally negotiated terms for plant location in the late 1980's, the 

city agreed to sell the property at a price far below market value subject to an obligation on the plant’s 
33 

part to adhere to certain agreements and restrictions, part of which was the fifteen year occupancy 

obligation. The city filed the lawsuit against the corporate headquarters when the plant notified them that 

it intended to sell the facility and the surrounding land after operations ceased. 

Due to the pending lawsuit, community leaders we contacted did not wish to discuss anything 

connected to the plant closure, with the exception of three individuals who, as we were to learn, were not 

closely connected to the issue. Even those who seemed to remember one of the researchers from a prior 

study would not agree to participate in this study. Therefore, none of the city officials that we felt would 

be most knowledgeable about the subject, took part in this study. The lawsuit was eventually settled in 

spring 2000, after which we held one last guided conversation with a community leader, an individual on 

the school board. Terms of the settlement were not made public. 

3.3.4 Coding the Data 

As stated above, the process of qualitative research is one in which the researcher constantly 

evaluates and reevaluates the content of the data that have been gathered. This is accomplished not just in 

the office, while rewriting and editing handwritten notes taken from conversations with respondents, but 

also while in the field, where subtle nuances relevant to the subject become known. In fact, in their guide 

to qualitative observation and analysis, Lofland and Lofland (1995) call for three necessary steps to be 

performed, the first of which is collection of data. This is then followed by “focusing”; asking social 

scientific questions about these data, and a prelude to the process of discovery that follows. A 

housekeeping form of coding emerges before analytical coding begins. The last task put forth is the 

development and presentation of a social science analysis of the data, an emergent product involving a 

process of gradual induction through analytical coding. Tables of responses according to topic are 

developed, which are then either subdivided or collapsed. This inherently open-ended process, according 

to Lofland and Lofland, can produce frustration and anxiety along the way to constructing social science 

order. 

Analyses of these types of research efforts continually emerge from the interaction of gathered data 

and focusing decisions. The researcher selects topics, decides what questions to ask, and forges interest in 

the course of the research itself. The purpose of the process is to achieve analyses that (1) are attuned to 

aspects of human group life, (2) depict aspects of that life, and (3) provide perspectives on that life that 

are not available to, or prompted by, other methods of research (Lofland and Lofland 1995). 

3.4 FINDINGS: IMPACT OF THE PLANT CLOSURE

The remainder of this chapter explores the impact of the Fruit of the Loom plant closure on 

Abbeville, including former employees and their families, as well as general community effects. We also 

outline the roles of government entities/agencies and the oil and gas industry in mediating these effects. 

3.4.1 Effects on Employees 

Of our respondents, former plant employees were the most directly affected by the closure. Of the 48 

displaced workers who participated in this study, most of them noted that the closure had a generally 

negative impact, as we expected. Of these, the loss of money was the most common difficulty noted. 

“I was affected by the loss in pay. I am a single parent, and after I lost my job the father 

of my 2 oldest children had to become financially responsible for them. I am still the sole 

support of my youngest child.” 

This is a logical negative effect of any job loss but is especially salient given the higher than average 

wages paid by the plant to workers with low levels of education and few transferable skills. These 

industry specific skills affect the earnings ability of workers in other industries (Moore, 1996), therefore 

new jobs found after dislocation due to restructuring in the job market rarely result in better opportunities 

for workers (Spalter-Roth and Deitch 1999). This is especially true in rural areas where service sector 

jobs that are available are typically low-wage and insecure retail jobs, rather than professional service 

jobs (Fitchen 1991). Of the forty-eight displaced workers in this study, 80 percent reported being 

employed at the time of guided conversation (two workers are retired and two are students, therefore they 

are excluded from employment statistics). Of those who found post-displacement employment, 75 
34 

percent did so in service-producing industries and accepted lower wages. Interestingly, all but two of the 

non-Asian displaced workers were employed, while nearly half of the Asian sample was unemployed. 

The loss of money was not the only difficulty reported by dislocated workers, however. Former 

employees also noted the primary impact of the closure on them was a loss of some of their independence 

from their husbands. 

“When I left [the plant], I lost some of my independence from my husband since I earn 

much less at my new job. Like many women today I like to be independent and do not 

like to ask my husband for money. Once I left Fruit of the Loom, I had to ask him for 

money.” 

Other employees discussed more affective responses to the closure such as being upset, angry or 

disappointed. This was in reference to a sense of betrayal felt by workers because the company did not 

live up to their promise to remain in the area for fifteen years, instead moving jobs overseas. 

“I was disappointed that they made the decision to go overseas.” 

“I was upset and hurt when they announced the shutdown.” 

Not all dislocated workers saw the shutdown as negative. Some reported that they were not at all 

affected because of various reasons. 

“I quit my job shortly before the layoffs because my husband asked me to. Therefore, the 

layoff didn’t affect me.” 

“. . . [I] actually quit in June because I was completely burned out. [FOL] had been 

talking about a layoff, but rumors had gone around for a while and they had hired more 

workers the previous year. After I quit working at Fruit of the Loom, I stayed at home 

for a while.” 

“Fortunately, my husband, who works at the Port of Iberia, took up the slack.” 

And finally, there were those who said the layoff had a positive effect on them. 

“I was actually kind of glad when it closed because after the birth of my baby they put me 

in a new department, which I didn’t like. I didn’t enjoy my last year there.” 

“It was positive for me because I took advantage of everything the state had to offer.” 

3.4.2 Desirability of Fruit of the Loom Jobs 

The type of jobs that were lost by factory workers influenced the severity of impact they expressed. 

Garment factory work is high pressure, task-focused work requiring very specific skills and relatively 

little human interaction. This type of work generally pays higher wages than the employees, often 

possessing very low levels of education, can earn elsewhere (Rosen 1987). We argue that the impact of 

the closure on employees, to a large extent, is influenced by whether, on balance, employees liked their 

jobs or disliked them. 

To explore this, we discussed with former factory employees whether they would work at a similar 

plant again if given the opportunity and asked them to compare their current job (if any) to their job at 

the plant. One-third said they would definitely not work at a similar plant if given the opportunity 

because their jobs were physically strenuous and/or extremely stressful. 

“No! Production was too stressful. I set sleeves, and there was a lot of pressure on me. 

Work was hectic, and I felt like I never did enough to please the company.” 
35 

“No. There was too much stress and pressure. The people in charge there were mean. 

Supervisors would pull my hair if I did not meet my quota.” 

“Things being even, no. There were a lot of things I felt uncomfortable with. 

Management techniques were not always ethical. I had to compromise my values to 

satisfy upper management and yet deal with the people who worked under me.” 

This negative view of garment industry work was not universal, however, as two-thirds of the 

respondents said they would again work at a similar plant if given the opportunity. Interestingly, all but 

three of the eighteen Asian respondents reported they would again work at such a plant, while only half of 

the non-Asian respondents would do so. The most common reason given was for the higher wages paid 

by the plant. This is consistent with the loss of money being the most common impact of the closure 

mentioned by dislocated workers. 

Comparing new jobs to plant jobs also gives us insight into how the closure impacted the daily lives 

of those who found employment after the closure. Nearly all who found post-displacement employment 

said their new jobs were better than their old jobs primarily because much less stress was involved. 

“It is heaven. There is much less stress and it is a pleasant work environment. The job 

was a “nightmare.” The managers were not at all caring. They were very hard. The 

managers there went to school to manage but when they implemented the ideas they 

learned they were ineffective. Employees were expected to work whether they were sick 

or not. I disliked it so much that I left early and lost vacation pay.” 

“The cut in pay was worth my sanity. At Fruit of the Loom you were a number, not a 

human. But it was hard at first, taking my cut in pay (about 50 percent). The kids had to 

do without, but now I spend a lot of time with them, and I heard them say, “Now we have 

our mom back. It’s worth it.” 

3.4.3 Perceptions of Where Fruit of the Loom Employees Went After Closure 

In addition to displaced workers’ discussion of the impact of the closure on their own lives, we also 

discussed, with all respondents, what they thought the Fruit of the Loom workers did after the closure. 

Many offered their opinions that displaced workers probably found jobs paying less than their jobs at the 

plant. Numerous places were mentioned, including the jewelry factory in Lafayette, casinos, Head Start 

(as teacher’s aids), Wal-Mart, and fast food restaurants. This is consistent with literature that shows that 

unskilled and semi-skilled manufacturing workers who are laid off often end up working in low-paying 

service industry jobs (Fitchen 1991). In addition to those who went to jobs outside the apparel industry, 

some transferred to other Fruit of the Loom plants in the surrounding area, or began working at other 

nearby garment factories. 

Many respondents also believed that former Fruit of the Loom workers took advantage of the 

educational opportunities offered by the state. Data from JTPA (Job Training Partnership Act) records 

show that “151 of the workers from the Abbeville plant received training funded by JTPA, with 141 of 

these individuals participating in classroom training.” Classes included LPN, certified nursing assistant 

and computer training. Of our forty-eight displaced workers, only a few reported having participated in 

such a program, and of those, almost half failed to complete because they dropped out. 

While the opportunity to attend school was seen by most community respondents as a positive result 

of the plant closure, there were those who recognized training did not always solve the problems of 

displaced workers, citing cases of those who attended school for a while but quit to earn money, or others 

that finished educational programs and still earned less than when they worked at FOL. 

While a plausible response to a plant closure is moving out of the area to another job, this was 

insignificant in this case. According to unemployment insurance claims from other states, only a small 

number (less than ten) moved out of state. This is not surprising given what we already know about 

Abbeville, an area where familial ties are very strong. Such bonds provide support for individuals in 

times of socioeconomic need (Fitchen 1991), and when asked why they live in Abbeville, respondents 

credited family ties, love of the “community” in general and the people in the area and/or because it is 

simply ‘home’. We should also note that a majority of our female respondents were married, and their 
36 

households had other sources of income such as the spouse’s earnings. This, too, served to anchor the 

displace FOL workers in the community. 

3.4.4 Effect on Family 

In addition to effects on displaced workers, we also wanted to know how, or in what ways, were their 

families impacted as well. As a group, non-Asians were evenly divided on this issue; fifty percent 

believed their families had been affected negatively by the loss of their jobs, the other fifty percent 

believed they had not been affected. Non-Asian displaced workers emphasized familial responses to the 

effects of the plant closure as including “cutting back” and “making do,” rather than receiving outside 

assistance of any kind. 

“The household no longer has everything I think it needs. We’ve had to cut way back, 

and it’s hard to explain that to a ten year old girl.” 

“My youngest child took it hard because she had to adjust to not getting what she wanted 

all the time. She would ask me, “Why did you quit?” 

“After I lost my job, the father of my two oldest children had to become financially 

responsible for them.” 

“You learn to make do with what you have.” 

“[My family members] weren’t affected. My daughter is grown and lives away from 

home.” 

In comparison, nearly all Asian respondents reported their families were affected, and were more 

likely to talk about assistance received from family sources beyond normal spousal support. This is an 

adaptive advantage to the plant closure by allowing for the pooling of household incomes. 

“At the same time that I got laid off, my mother got laid off too...my uncle helped.” 

“My family was very helpful. My son helps me around the house.” 

“It didn’t really affect us because everyone is working in the house.” 

While impacts were felt by some, the closure was not as devastating as initially predicted, and not all 

of the family impacts mentioned were negative. A few employees noted that their families were relieved 

when the plant closed because their jobs caused stress within the family. 

3.4.5 Effects on Abbeville 

Beyond workers and their families, plant closures often affect entire communities by increasing 

unemployment, causing a decline in the taxable employment base, and creating fiscal stress (Littman and 

Lee, 1983). We look at these effects on the community as a whole that respondents identified. Across all 

groups responses fell somewhere along a continuum, from general to specific, from “not affected at all,” 

to “tremendous effects.” 

“...It put a lot of people out of work who were from the Abbeville area.” 

“... things worked out better than at first expected. For one thing, the benefits paid to 

Fruit of the Loom workers seemed to be pretty good. I know this because my wife has 

connections to someone at Fruit of the Loom.” 

“... Economically it hurt. Lots of people lost jobs...” 
37 

“[The closure impacted the city] drastically. Financially, a lot of people had worked 

there for a long time. They didn’t know anything else. It hurt a lot of people especially 

those with no education. I am not sure what became of them.” 

“Goodness, yes. I knew lots (of dislocated workers) who were single moms, and they 

lost their sewing jobs. They were sick with worry.” 

“Abbeville itself is affected because they receive no income from the site. The city owns 

the land and is currently in litigation over the building since it is owned by FOL.” 

“People are too wrapped up in the oil industry in that area. That really affects how well 

the community does. Oil.” 

While the announcement of the closure came as a shock to the community, with most community 

leaders and citizens expecting it to devastate the city, our respondents usually discussed the effects in very 

general terms, that is, “the economy” in the community had been impacted to some extent, with no 

specifics given. A few said they did not know how the community had been affected, or they believed 

there had been no effect. Some were badly misinformed, for example, the “community leader” (police 

juror) who told us nearly 4,000 jobs had been lost. We believe because most respondents offered only 

very general comments, it likely indicates a lack of understanding of specific consequences or 

implications. 

3.5 GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY RESPONSES TO PLANT CLOSURE

3.5.1 Government Responses 

This section includes responses to the Fruit of the Loom closure made by the government and the 

larger community. Discussions with stakeholders reveal three separate areas of government involvement 

in the plant closure. Opinions regarding the effectiveness of government action differed depending on 

which area of involvement was discussed. The first area concerns the involvement of city and state 

officials in bringing the factory to the area (Factory Recruitment Efforts) and the subsequent results of 

this initial contract. The second type of government involvement referred to the efforts of city and state 

officials to prevent the closure (Factory Retention Efforts). The third type of involvement mentioned by 

stakeholders dealt with efforts by the government to minimize the negative impact of the plant closure on 

employees and on the community as a whole (Closure Remediation Efforts). Since multinational 

corporations are often less subject to local pressure to remain in an area than locally owned companies, 

most government interventions aim to minimize the negative impacts of closures (Portz 1990; Wendling 

1984). 

3.5.1.1 Factory Recruitment Efforts 

Stakeholders who commented on the city’s factory recruitment efforts thought that bringing large 

manufacturing establishments to the community was a worthwhile endeavor. Advocates saw the potential 

for enhanced community well-being through economic development along with increased employment 

opportunities. However, most respondents viewed the contractual arrangements used to entice the 

company to Abbeville as unsatisfactory. Specifically, informants criticized the flawed negotiations, 

inordinate tax breaks, and subsequent contract that brought the apparel plant to the area, noting that the 

city was in litigation with the company over ownership of the building and land. 

“The city was unable to respond quickly [to the closure announcement] because they 

hadn’t covered their bases regarding the land the building is on. FOL was given the 

property for less than $100 in agreement to stay a certain number of years, but they didn’t 

do that. The city is now in litigation over it.” 

“Since (FOL’s) leaving had such a small impact on other businesses, it is possible that 

(their) entrance into the area did not have as much of a positive impact as (city officials) 

claimed it would. [This] leads one to question all of the perks given to them by the city. 
38 

Businesses that have been here for years and will be here in the future pay their own way 

while FOL was given tax breaks. It makes you ask what Abbeville got in return.” 

A community leader pointed out that the problem faced by Abbeville is not unique: 

“Small towns keep falling for the same thing: They give large companies tax breaks and 

incentives to locate in their city and then the companies leave sooner than promised. 

These cities are in a difficult situation because they need the jobs and (they need) to have 

someone (occupying) the buildings.” 

3.5.1.2 Factory Retention Efforts 

In addition to the government’s role in bringing Fruit of the Loom to Abbeville, it also attempted to 

keep the plant from moving. Respondents’ understandings of the efforts undertaken by city and state 

officials to convince the company to stay were limited, and responses to probes regarding this topic 

generally fell into two equally vague categories. Some individuals noted that the government “did all they 

could to keep [the factory] here” or that they “worked very hard at making them stay,” while others stated 

that the government “did not do enough to keep them there.” Others thought that the plant’s departure was 

the inevitable result of the global economy, and a number of respondents blamed the North American 

Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for the departure of the plant. 

“We gave them quite a bit, but they went where they’d find cheap labor. They didn’t 

care about the community.” 

“Textile (manufacturers) began up north, moved south, and now have moved further 

south.” 

“When NAFTA first came to our attention, we were worried that it would affect us. The 

government told us not to worry, and then Fruit of the Loom made their announcement. 

The government was lying.” 

3.5.1.3 Closure Remediation Efforts 

Finally, the government played an important role once the closure was underway. Efforts that 

reduced the impact of the closure included educational opportunities, job screening and placement 

services, and extended unemployment insurance benefits. Several pieces of legislation and numerous 

government and private agencies assisted displaced workers before and after the closure. The Worker 

Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires businesses with more than 100 employees 

to provide employees with two months notice of closure plans. Once the factory notified the Department 

of Labor of their plans to close the Abbeville plant, the Department of Labor issued a WARN notice 

which prompted several agencies to begin offering a variety of services to employees. 

The Governor’s Rapid Response Team, comprised of representatives from Job Services, the 

Department of Economic Development, local Chamber of Commerce, and JTPA in the nine parish 

Acadiana area coordinated numerous interventions to assist dislocated workers. These interventions 

included an on-site orientation where Job Services staff assessed plant employees and assisted them in 

filling out applications for benefits under the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), NAFTA-TAA, and the 

Trade Readjustment Act (TRA). These Acts provide funding for retraining and school related expenses 

for dislocated workers deemed eligible. Certified workers can be retrained under TAA and Job Training 

Partnership Act (JTPA) for occupations that are in demand. These workers can also apply for the 

standard 26 weeks of Unemployment Insurance and, if the TAA and TRA are approved, they can apply 

for up to 52 additional weeks of unemployment insurance. This allows eligible workers to receive 

Unemployment Insurance (UI) for up to a year and a half if they are in an approved training program. 

The Governor’s Rapid Response Team also held a series of meetings for workers that instructed them 

in how to look for work, which included writing resumes, interviewing skills, and dressing for an 

interview. These workshops taught workers strategies for dealing with a reduced income such as 

budgeting and gaining access to other community supports for those in need. 
39 

Beyond the initial orientation efforts and workshops, case managers from Job Services worked with 

each client to certify them for continuing unemployment insurance eligibility, and displaced workers were 

given the opportunity to return to school. JTPA also developed additional training programs in response 

to plant closures in Abbeville, Port Barre, and St. Martinville. First assessing the needs of each individual 

being laid off by giving them a survey regarding their interest in training, they then met with 

representatives of an area Vocational Technical school and shared the results of these surveys. This 

resulted in proposals for new training programs. 

JTPA used Title III dislocated worker money to allow Louisiana Technical College-Gulf Coast 

Campus to provide special nursing and computer courses. Initially six month, short-term basic skills 

classes were offered. However, since employees were not interested in these, regular programs that 

typically last 2 years were offered. JTPA funds also paid for tuition and books, and child care expenses. 

TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance) also offered by Job Services, paid for transportation costs associated 

with education if the employee had to travel over a minimum number of miles to get to school. 

The result of these government activities was that former employees were offered opportunities to 

return to school to gain additional skills that would prepare them for new jobs. 

“The state did a good job of helping people recover before the plant actually closed. 

Governor’s representatives met with workers and provided them with retraining 

opportunities. . . .” 

There was, however some confusion about who was actually responsible for these opportunities. One 

dislocated worker thought the garment factory provided the training and an oil and gas industry 

representative credited the mayor with the funding of the educational programs. 

Generally, there was an overall positive impression of the government’s response and coordination of 

services. One agency representative told us: 

“[The government] coordinated activities well. Initially there were “turf” issues but these 

were worked through and all involved agencies worked together.” 

but criticisms of the government’s response were heard as well. These included their inability to keep the 

factory in Abbeville, the inadequacy of the training provided and ineffective results when all was said and 

done. A city resident said: 

“[Their] response was good but it didn’t work.” 

There were criticisms of the training program as well. First, there was incongruence with the length 

of programs and unemployment insurance benefits. Several of the courses offered to workers took two 

years to complete while extended unemployment insurance benefits last only one and a half years. This 

made it difficult for some to complete their programs of study while discouraging others from starting. 

Another criticism was directed at the types of jobs for which training programs prepared workers. While 

much of the rhetoric regarding educational opportunities focused on retooling workers to participate in the 

new, high-tech economy, the jobs they were being trained for were neither high-tech nor high-wage. 

Examples given to us included sales clerks and food service workers. Given our focus on the role of the 

oil industry in mediating the impact of the plant closure, the absence of any training related to this 

industry is conspicuous. 

“The mayor and Gary Forester from the Department of Labor came in to help. However, 

the transition to the high-tech computer jobs that they said would happen was a joke. The 

actual transition of the Fruit of the Loom employees was to low tier jobs such as clerks 

and other retail jobs.” 

Beyond those directly involved in training, five social service agency representatives that we spoke to 

noted that they offered standard services to employees but they did not fundamentally change their 

programs in response. Such services included transportation, paying utility bills, and emergency food. 
40 

3.5.2 Community Response 

In addition to formal government responses, some general responses of the community to the closure 

were mentioned by respondents. Both displaced workers and social service agency workers reported that 

they and others boycotted products of the factory and lobbied police jury members to take action to 

convince them to stay. Not surprisingly, many mentioned affective community responses such as 

individuals being angry, upset or disappointed. Some thought Fruit of the Loom did not handle the 

situation properly, noting that an announcement of the closure was simply made over the intercom. 

Proactive community responses to the closure include businesses in the community offering jobs to 

employees, lenders renegotiating loan arrangements, and increasing services offered by social service 

agencies. 

“Businesses in the community offered jobs to people.” 

“The bank worked with the employees by extending notes and refinancing loans at lower 

interest rates. The bank made the decision to work with its customers in this way because 

it is a “community” bank.” 

No references to rallies, picket lines or demonstrations were noted by anyone. The only form of 

collective action mentioned was a product boycott which was commented upon by a few individuals. 

This is not surprising since some workers saw the closure as inevitable due to global economic conditions 

and because of the educational opportunities offered to workers. Portz (1990) argues that the presence of 

such feelings of inevitability, along with perceived opportunities for displaced workers, often result in a 

lack of collective action on the part of workers. 

3.6 OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY AND THE IMPACT OF THE PLANT CLOSURE

Finally, we arrive at the primary focus of this chapter: the role of the oil and gas industry in the 

aftermath of the Fruit of the Loom plant closure. As noted earlier, the oil and gas industry has the 

potential to benefit Abbeville in the wake of the closure in a number of ways. First, oil and gas 

companies could hire displaced workers directly. Second, members of Fruit of the Loom workers’ 

families could work in the oil and gas industry. Finally, increased oil and gas industry activity could 

ameliorate the negative impacts experienced by displaced workers and the community as a whole through 

local and/or economic expansion that typically accompanies such a significant industry. 

When we talked to all ninety-nine respondents about the prevalence of oil and gas companies hiring 

former Fruit of the Loom workers, few noted that they thought that this occurred. The most common 

view held by respondents was that oil and gas companies did not hire these displaced workers, and many 

stated that they had not heard of any apparel plant workers hired by oil and gas industry establishments, 

simply did not know or were not sure. Those who held the opinion oil and gas companies did not hire 

former workers believe those workers possessed different skills than were needed in the oil and gas 

industry: 

“Those workers do not have the skills necessary.” 

“Others may not have been hired because they have different skills. Their skills are 

sewing and knitting, oil and gas-related companies require different skills.” 

“[I] did not think that those workers have skills that are transferable to the oil and gas 

industry. They were mostly women with sewing skills.” 

This reference to gender is indicative of another type of response that doubts oil and gas industry 

companies hired these displaced workers because most former apparel plant employees are female. Some 

noted that women generally lack the skills necessary to work in the industry, while others thought women 

would not be interested in the work. 
41 

“The majority of the employees were women with an average age probably early 30s. 

Their physical and technical skills wouldn’t be adequate for work in the oil industry.” 

“If [some women] did [work in the oil and gas industry], it was probably very few. The 

majority [of employees] were women who wouldn’t want to work in the oil field...” 

“[I] do not think that [oil and gas companies hired Fruit of the Loom employees] because 

these companies hire different kinds of workers. Most of the workers were women and 

most of the oil and gas jobs are offshore. Its not that employers would not hire women. 

Some women do work off shore, but women usually do not want to work off shore.” 

“...those jobs in the industry that require few skills are not the kinds of jobs one sees 

women doing. [For instance,] you don’t see female roustabouts.” 

Some expressed optimism that the oil and gas industry would have provided more jobs to displaced 

workers if the industry had not been experiencing a slowdown at the time of the closure. 

“Oil and gas companies have experienced a slowdown over the last 14 months or so, and 

things were looking bad even at the time of the layoffs. Oil and gas got rid of those 

positions requiring few skills first, so it’s unlikely that the workers were hired at those 

companies.” 

In general, whether or not workers are actually hired for any particular job depends both on workers 

seeking jobs in the industry and the willingness of employers to hire them. What we found from our 

discussions with displaced workers is that, with the exception of four individuals, they did not seek jobs 

in the oil and gas industry. Those who did had family connections and were successful. 

There were many reasons given by displaced workers for not seeking employment in such a dominant 

local industry, including the following. 

“No, I didn’t have the skills or the desire to look there.” 

“I don’t have the training to make a decent salary. No oil company is going to hire 

anyone without some skills.” 

“I don’t speak English well. They won’t hire me.” 

“I don’t think they’ll hire women.” 

“I don’t think females fit in that field. I see and know of males working there only.” 

“I was already working part-time at Godfather’s Pizza, so once we were let go, they gave 

me more hours.” 

As the above excerpts show, reasons given by workers included lack of interest in seeking 

employment in the oil and gas industry; having a job already lined up or knowing what kind of job they 

wanted to seek; and concern they lacked the skills, education, or credentials necessary for employment. 

Our conversations with oil and gas industry representatives also probed whether their companies 

hired or made overtures toward hiring former factory employees in any positions. Only four out of the 

total of thirty-one companies reported they hired displaced plant workers; two of them prior to the actual 

closure, and the other two hired displaced workers after those individuals completed vo-tech training. 

Many of them reported that at the time of the plant closure, they either weren’t hiring, or they hire 

infrequently all of the time. Chief among their responses to our probes are those addressing gender, 

skills, experience and education. 

“Most of the employees there were women. Most of our jobs are offshore. Women 

either do not want these jobs or are not allowed to work them” 
42 

“Even if those workers had applied for a job here, they probably would not have had the 

necessary skills. [My] business does sandblasting and painting for oil field companies. 

These jobs require specific skills. “ 

”I wanted to hire some...workers but no one applied for a job. Even if they had applied, 

they probably wouldn’t have had the necessary skills.” 

“Our company is located in Intracoastal, for starters. Secondly, most of our employees 

are men. Women....usually don’t want to work outside in the yard. It’s rough and 

sometimes dangerous work.” 

Jobs in the oil and gas industry, as in any other industry, vary by occupation. Some jobs, such as 

roustabouts and other production work, require physical strength, stamina and little skill. Other jobs, such 

as executives, administrators and clerical workers require job- specific skills. Geologist, engineering and 

management jobs require high level of specified education. Since most of the displaced workers were 

women with little education and garment industry-specific skills, and since none of the training programs 

developed for them focused on teaching them these skills, they were unqualified for many of the high 

paying jobs in the oil and gas industry. What is evident from our conversations with displaced workers 

and oil and gas industry representatives is that sex segregation in the workplace continues to affect the 

employment opportunities of women in the oil and gas industry. 

The failure of women to enter the lower skilled production jobs is related to gender stereotyping and 

occupational sex stereotypes held by employers and employees. On the labor demand side, sex role 

stereotyping is evidenced in statements made by employers such as “women...would not want to work in 

the oil field.” Occupational sex labels were also used by employers: “You don’t see female roustabouts.” 

The fault does not lie with employers alone, however. Displaced workers also reflected these views, thus 

affecting worker supply. One worker noted that “The majority of Fruit of the Loom employees were 

women . . . their physical and technical skills would not be adequate to work in the oil industry.” 

We asked each respondent in the oil and gas industry how their company usually hires new 

employees, an important issue in determining possible constraints or opportunities confronting not only 

displaced workers, but the supply of labor in general. We found that those companies in the secondary 

support sector of the industry relied on networking: “word-of-mouth;” “through the grapevine;” and, 

“contacts of employees with others.” There were only a few who reportedly hired new employees 

through newspaper ads, radio, or what they referred to as “walk-ins.” In contrast, companies in the 

tertiary support sector generally felt networking was not significant in hiring: they advertise in 

newspapers, recruit when need arises at area schools, and accept “walk-ins.” However, many of these 

firms also commented that they seldom hire, in fact one bank reported it had not hired anyone in 10 years. 

What is apparent from the data is that, for the most part, oil and gas employers and former Fruit of the 

Loom employees view the local labor marked as ‘split’ (Bonacich, 1976 ). While Bonacich presents a 

labor market in which whites and blacks worked in two distinct labor markets, the split in this case is 

based on gender. In the eyes of oil and gas industry employers, community leaders, social service agency 

representatives and displaced workers, female Fruit of the Loom employees are not seen as the “type” of 

workers hired by the oil and gas industry (Bonacich 1976). 

These findings do not, however, mean that the oil and gas industry played no role in mediating the 

effect of the closure. The oil and gas industry could potentially lessen the impact of the shutdown by 

employing other members of displaced workers households. In fact, fully one-third of the forty-eight 

respondents answered in the affirmative, including four workers who themselves successfully obtained 

employment in the industry. Other than these four, only one other displaced worker offered that a 

household member, a son who had quit school to work at the Port of Iberia to pay car notes, had actively 

sought employment in the industry after the plant closure. Note that the income generated by spouses was 

mentioned as an important factor that eased the impact of the closure on some families. 

Beyond directly affecting workers and their families, the oil and gas industry could indirectly help the 

community in the wake of plant closure by bringing a substantial amount of money into the local 

economy through wages and demand for goods and services. The effect of the 1998-1999 oil and gas 

industry slowdown on Abbeville demonstrates the importance of this industry on the overall economy. A 

majority of those we talked to thought that the slowdown in the oil and gas industry had a negative impact 

on Abbeville, several noting simply that oil and gas problems always affect areas like Abbeville. 
43 

“Anytime you have an important part of the economy hurting, the community hurts too. 

People realize that about the oil business.” 

A variety of specific reasons for the effect of the slowdown on Abbeville were given. Those impacts 

discussed during our conversations can be categorized into two types. Some respondents focused on 

factors affecting individuals in the city such as job loss or wage decreases, while others focused on more 

aggregate effects such as declines in tax revenues and decreased money flow affecting all area businesses. 

“More people are on the street instead of working and business is not picking up in the 

oil field. Many people are drawing unemployment insurance, while others are cutting 

grass.” 

“People were working less. However, the impact has been lessened by other industries 

(seafood, cattle).” 

“[The slowdown is a] growing concern to all. There have been some layoffs, but the 

industry seems to be picking up again.” 

“[The slowdown] has affected those companies that are less diversified than ours since 

they rely on the oil and gas industry more [than we do].” 

“The slowdown is more devastating than the factory shutdown because primary earners 

are losing jobs in the oil and gas slowdown. Whereas, Fruit of the Loom workers were 

mostly women with husbands who were also working...” 

“In general, there are no jobs in the area. One has to travel to Lafayette or New Iberia for 

work. Basically the only jobs available in the Abbeville-Kaplan area are at rice mills and 

at WalMart. Most of the oil and gas industry work is in Intercostal City. You have to 

leave the area to get a good job.” 

We found that respondents generally agreed the impact of a slowdown in the oil and gas industry was 

greater than the plant closure since primary wage earners are more likely to lose their jobs (as opposed to 

secondary sources of income earned by females). Negative effects reach well beyond those directly 

employed in the industry to other businesses in the community (and thus the economy in general). 

“When residents earn less they have less to spend.” 

“Overall it has affected the city since people spend less money everywhere when they are 

earning less money.” 

“[I]t has affected Abbeville because people have less money to spend. Less money 

coming into the community means less spent on housing, clothing, and food. It also 

means more incidences of bankruptcy.” 

“The school board has been hurt due to less income from oil leases.” 

“We are collecting $6-7 million less in revenues now from oil/gas...” 

“It has not been as bad as it was in 1983. That was a disaster. The slowdown affected 

banks because people spent money and lived high while the money was good. They were 

not prepared for the slowdown. People lost homes and businesses closed because they 

were not being run correctly. Today, businesses are more cautious as are banks. Banks 

are also more diversified... However, Abbeville will survive both the slowdown in the oil 

and gas industry and the shutdown.” 
44 

These excerpts are indicative of the importance the industry is perceived to have in the community. 

Respondents believe a slowdown in primary oil development activities has negative consequences that 

filter down to secondary and tertiary support sectors, and other industries as well 

3.7 CONCLUSION

Our primary objective of this study was twofold. First, we assessed the socioeconomic impact of the 

closure of a Fruit of the Loom apparel plant in Abbeville, Louisiana, on displaced workers, their families 

and the community at large. We then examined whether companies connected with the oil and gas 

industry in the community and surrounding area mitigated negative impacts experienced as consequences 

of the apparel plant closure. This could be possible in several ways: first, by providing post-displacement 

labor market opportunities for displaced workers; secondly, oil and gas companies could provide 

employment for former Fruit of the Loom workers’ families; or finally, increased oil and gas industry 

activity could ameliorate the negative impacts experienced by displaced workers and the community as a 

whole through economic expansion that typically accompanies such a significant industry. 

The industrial mix of Abbeville includes oil and gas-related industries, agriculture, service and retail 

establishments, and garment manufacturing. Guided conversations with respondents revealed that the 

closure of the Fruit of the Loom plant in Abbeville was less devastating than feared initially because other 

segments of the economy were quite viable. What we found was substantial economic growth in this 

community has resulted from development of oil and gas support sectors, as well as growth in other 

industries that have offered alternative labor market opportunities. The oil and gas industry has fulfilled 

its promise to the region as one capable of bringing unparalleled prosperity during periods of industry 

expansion. Service linkages, marketing linkages, and production linkages are important in an expanding 

oil and gas industry, as they are in manufacturing. In such an agglomeration economy, demand for labor 

is created (Daniels 1985). 

In spite of its notoriety as being a boom-bust industry, respondents in this study view the oil and gas 

industry as a key factor in the success of the Abbeville economy. Though this industry is recognized as 

the cornerstone of the economy, respondents also acknowledge the importance of economic diversity. 

Most of those in the industry have learned to deal with its cyclical nature through diversification and 

accumulation of capital to use during slowdowns. 

Most of the opportunities within the oil and gas industry itself are limited to males, and this appears 

to be true of Abbeville. There are jobs in which females can be found, for example, clerical and 

administrative support, but most opportunities for females within the industry are associated with larger 

cities. Analyses of conversations indicate only four displaced workers in our study sought and found 

employment in the industry. Representatives of oil and gas companies emphasize the importance of jobspecific skills and training and physical strength and dangerous work in the hiring process. These are 

skills and attributes displaced apparel plant workers lack. 

Though only one family member sought employment in the industry after the plant closure, one-third 

of the displaced workers we spoke with had at least one family member already employed in the industry 

at the time of the closure. We believe that the income from these family members is an important factor 

in reducing the impact of the closure on some families. 

We argue that the Fruit of the Loom closure did not devastate the city of Abbeville as expected at 

least in part because of the oil and gas industry. As noted, economic growth and general development of 

the region that has been attributed to the growth of the industry has created demand for labor in other 

industries and employment sectors that has had to be met with adequate labor supply. More employment 

opportunities exist today within this community and surrounding area because indirectly, growth of the 

oil and gas industry has served as an impetus in creating other labor market opportunities. In this regard 

alone, displaced workers have benefited from oil and gas development. 
45 

CHAPTER 4 INDUSTRIAL DIVERSITY ALONG THE U.S. GULF OF 

MEXICO COAST 

Project Personnel: John J. Beggs, Louisiana State University 

Charles M. Tolbert, II, Baylor University 

Troy Blanchard, Mississippi State University 

Russell Davis, Louisiana State University 

4.1 INTRODUCTION

This research continued a project that began with a focus on a small community in Southwestern 

Louisiana. With funding from the U.S. Minerals Management Service, we expanded the scope of our 

initial work to test hypotheses derived from the community study. We found Abbeville to be something of 

a hybrid community—one that does not fit the presumptive rural or urban dichotomy. Our findings in our 

field work suggested that, unlike most oil and gas dependent locations, Abbeville’s industry base is 

diverse. This industrial diversity is reflected in part by labor-intensive manufacturing, extractive 

(agriculture), and professional and business services sectors. This business services sector is largely oil 

and gas related as Abbeville is a center for operations and logistics. Accompanying these industry-specify 

services is a relatively large collection of professional services establishments organized in ways that 

reflect the community’s status as a county seat. This is reflected in substantial numbers of medical, legal, 

government, and other professional and white-collar offices. 

In this analysis conducted at the Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies, we employed 

confidential longitudinal establishment data to analyze the distribution of coastal industrial labor over 

time and space. We were interested in the extent to which divisions of labor similar to those of Abbeville 

exist elsewhere along the Gulf Coast. We were also interested in the socioeconomic implications of these 

industrial patterns for coastal communities. These findings will contribute to a better understanding of the 

role of oil and gas activity vis a vis other industrial activity in local coastal communities. 

4.2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Socioeconomic conditions are primarily dependent upon patterns of industrial organization. Local 

economies are based on the allocation of employment across distinct industrial sectors. Each sector is 

associated with different working conditions, opportunities and job outcomes (Lobao, 1990). Industrial 

organization theory generally divides industries into extractive, manufacturing and service categories. 

The manufacturing and service sectors can be further divided into four more discrete sectors, defined on 

the basis of the magnitude of the complexity of their operations and earnings/benefits of workers: 

complex and routine manufacturing, and business and consumer services (McGranahan, 1988). In 

general, complex manufacturing and business/professional services are associated with higher wages and 

stable employment while routine manufacturing and consumer services are associated with lower wages 

and less stable employment. 

In rural areas (where much of the oil and gas activity is staged), sound economic performance is often 

a function of a diversified economy. This diversification tends to produce more consistent economic 

growth. Specialized economies, on the other hand, can expand rapidly but are particularly vulnerable to 

local and national level swings in the economy. Because of a division of labor across space, most rural 

areas tend to specialize in low wage routine production and consumer service sector jobs. Typically 

dominated by a single industrial sector, these communities are especially vulnerable to business cycles 

and foreign competition which encourage capital flight (Bluestone and Harrison, 1982; McGranahan, 

1988). 

Because diversified local economies are not dependent on any single sector source of employment 

and earnings, they are better prepared than more specialized economies to weather the economic 

downturns associated with specific industries (Killian and Hady, 1988). This includes economic shocks 

such as the shutdown of large-scale textile production facilities throughout southwestern Louisiana 

(Acadiana). Abbeville, unlike many of the communities in Acadiana, is not solely dependent upon such 
46 

large-scale production facilities. Oil and gas activity is an integral part of its industrial structure and helps 

counter the economic downturns associated with the flight of routine production facilities offshore by 

either absorbing some surplus labor or increasing local household earnings (see Chapter 3). 

Because of the tendency for rural areas to specialize in routine manufacturing and consumer services, 

the industrial organizational and rural research literatures pay very little attention to business and 

professional services in rural areas. It is readily apparent that producer services in rural areas are closely 

associated with a dominant industrial base, such as mining (Glasmeier and Howland, 1995). However, it 

is not at all clear how these linkages develop across time and space. The Abbeville area differs from 

many other oil activity centers because it is more of a center for oil field logistics and operations than it is 

for oil field fabrication. Our field work shows that the concentration of oil-related business and 

professional services in Abbeville is a major factor in Abbeville’s resiliency to the decline in oil and gas 

activity. For the most part, these oil-related producer services firms remained active, albeit at a 

diminished rate, throughout the 1980s. However, the necessary spatial and temporal data to examine and 

compare the distribution and differential impact of oil and gas activity across time and space do not exist 

in the public domain. To address this data deficiency, we were permitted to access internal, confidential 

household and economic data at the U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies. We describe our 

exploratory work with these data in this chapter. 

4.3 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

4.3.1 Analysis of Enterprise Data 

Our findings in the Abbeville case study were sufficiently robust to support a hypothesis for testing 

on other communities. The hypothesis was based on our observation of a thriving producer, business, and 

professional services sector in the Abbeville economy. Are similar service sectors evident in other coastal 

communities? 

To adequately assess the development of a producer services sector in Abbeville and other coastal 

communities, we developed models of the coastal division of industrial labor, comparing socioeconomic 

outcomes for coastal areas with varying industrial compositions over time. We were especially interested 

in the extent to which industrial divisions of labor similar to that of Abbeville exist in other coastal 

communities. 

To accomplish this modeling task, we needed data on the specific location of business establishments 

and detailed industry classifications. These data requirements surpass such readily available data sources 

as County Business Patterns or published versions of data from the Economic Censuses. Although these 

data compendia are generally very useful, confidentiality concerns dictate that they frequently do not 

report data for small areas and small numbers of establishments. Although these establishment-level 

microdata are not in the public domain, they can be accessed through an agreement with the Center for 

Economic Studies (CES), U.S. Bureau of the Census. 

The CES has assembled establishment responses to various economic censuses. These data in 

conjunction with an age proxy available from the Census Bureau's SSEL (essentially a national business 

register), allowed us to study the "embeddedness" of establishments. It is necessary to have access to subcounty geography to evaluate local or community effects. This is not available from public sources. In 

the public-use microdata (PUMS) from the decennial (household) census, no sub-county information is 

available if the county population is less than 100,000. It is available, however, in the restricted access 

data files at CES. Still, these restricted access files at CES do not always provide a solution to the subcounty geographic identification problem. For example, this level of geographic detail is not reported for 

multi-establishment enterprises in the Census of Minerals because of the reporting methodology 

employed in this Census. The geographic detail in the 1990 Census of Population and Housing did prove 

very useful to us as we illustrate below. 

The economic census data at CES also provide detailed industrial classification (four- and five-digit 

SIC codes) and establishment type (single-unit vs. multiple location) information. Public data makes no 

distinction between multi and single unit enterprises. Publicly released files for four-digit industrial 

group with few employees may have limited or suppressed information (employment, revenues, etc) so 

researchers may have to use two- or three-digit industry group information. All previous socioeconomic 

work under the auspices of MMS has necessarily been based on public domain data that are often 

suppressed for reasons of confidentiality and that do not contain information on establishment age or 

type. By contrast, the economic census data files at CES contain no suppression. We will use these data 
47 

to develop a longitudinal database on coastal oil and gas producer services. We analyze data from all 

states adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico. 

We aimed to explore the extent to which the Abbeville case is unique or whether there are other, 

similar areas whose industrial mix might buffer them from episodes of increasing and decreasing oil and 

gas industry activity. 

4.3.2 Exploratory Study of Establishment Formation and Dissolution 

Previous research at the Center for Economic Studies has focused for the most part on manufacturing 

establishment formation, dissolution, and survival. An increasing interest at the Center is the replication 

of such studies, to the extent possible, for sectors outside of manufacturing. As part of our study, we 

hoped to contribute to and learn from such efforts by exploring the role of establishment formation, 

dissolution, and survival in manufacturing and nonmanufacturing sectors of our research sample. 

4.3.3 Exploratory Analysis of Decennial Long-Form Household Microdata 

In previous research, we have relied on published summary income information to assess volatility in 

income distributions. This approach is less than satisfactory because we are unable to assess detailed 

dispersion in income distributions. When we turned to available decennial household microdata (PUMS 

files), we found an unacceptable absence of geographic detail and top-coding of income amounts reported 

on person records. In addition to use of establishment microdata at CES, we used long-form household 

microdata from the 1990 Census. This permits a detailed and far more precise assessment of income 

distributions for Gulf Coast states. 

4.3.4 Units of Analysis 

This analysis employs data for roughly 80,000 persons who work in approximately 900 incorporated 

places in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. All the incorporated 

places have populations of at least 2,500 persons. This permits us to match the place geography on the 

1990 decennial information with the place geography found in the Economic Census of 1987 and 1992. 

Classifying individuals by their place of work—not by their place of residence—is an important departure 

from earlier work. The detailed internal Census data permit us to do this. This would not be possible with 

public data. 

4.4 FINDINGS

In describing our findings, we first provide information on the inadequacy of a widely used public 

source of establishment data (County Business Patterns). Then, summarizing data to the incorporated 

place level, we analyze the attributes of Gulf Coast places with industrial compositions like that of 

Abbeville and compare them to places less similar to our focal community. Our principal conclusion is 

that there are indeed other places along the Gulf Coast that feature a comparable mix of business and 

professional services. While disclosure constraints prevent us from naming those incorporated places, it 

does appear that status as a county seat conveys much of the same information. 

4.4.1 Limitations of Publicly Available Establishment Data 

This section of our presentation consists of a cautionary note about public data sources based on 

economic census data collection procedures such as the widely used County Business Patterns. In our 

work at the Census Bureau with the Census of Minerals, we have discovered that sub state geographies 

(e.g., metropolitan area, county, place) are not available. They are available neither in public data nor in 

the confidential establishment microdata that we employ at CES. Upon further investigation, we have 

learned that there are circumstances for which the Bureau does not collect or retain information other than 

state of operation. This is particularly the case for large enterprises that may have establishments in 

multiple locations. 

We were the first to use of Census of Minerals data at CES for research purposes. We transformed 

raw ASCII data files into SAS files suitable for analysis. Our setup and initial exploration of the minerals 

data is thus an important benefit to the Census Bureau. We attempted add geographic identifiers from the 
48 

Census Bureau’s national establishment register known as the Standard Statistical Establishment List

(SSEL). By using the SSEL, we were to identify geography for most single minerals establishments. But, 

the SSEL does not contain much in the way of sub-state geography for enterprises composed of multiple 

establishments. We met with staff at the Census Bureau who oversee data collection for the Census of 

Minerals. They reported that, in order to minimize burden on businesses, multi-establishment enterprises 

are permitted to file one report for all establishments within a state. 

This problem regarding information on minerals industries is further compounded by the Bureau’s 

suppression of certain data in published reports such as County Business Patterns. Suppression is done to 

ensure the confidentiality of data for specific establishments. Most often, suppression is used to avoid 

disclosing data on a single, dominant firm in an area. But, there are other reasons that data are 

suppressed. Suppression flags appear in data fields of the County Business Patterns for establishment 

employment and payroll. More often than not, the flag references a range of possible data values (say, 

500-1000 employees). Experienced users know to observe the suppression flags in public versions of the 

data and will typically derive an estimate of employment or payroll by using the midpoint of the interval. 

Table 4.1 illustrates how these two data problems interact to limit substantially the inferences that can 

be made from such published data sources as County Business Patterns. Each of the columns represents 

one of the Gulf-coast states that are the focus of our ongoing work. The data for Alabama indicate that 23 

Alabama counties are identified as having one or more minerals industries establishments. In 20 of those 

23 counties, however, employment and/or payroll data are suppressed. There are minerals establishments 

in other counties of Alabama, but the counties are not identified (the balance of the data are grouped into 

a single residual geographic category—code 999). Because establishment counts are not suppressed, we 

can report 90 minerals industry establishments for which counties are identified and 41 establishments in 

the non-identified geographic unit. This sums to the 131 found in the state total section. Payroll and total 

employment are suppressed for the generic geographic category in Alabama. What do we miss because 

of this? Because the state total payroll (in $1,000s) is $67,792 and the identified county payroll is 

$10,357, we do not have sub state geography for $57,435, which is 85 percent of Alabama’s minerals 

industries’ payroll. Similarly, we cannot identify a location within the state for 84 percent of the 

employment in the industry. We know only that the place of work is somewhere in Alabama. Although 

Alabama may be the extreme case, there is substantial unaccounted information for all states in Table 4.1. 

In Louisiana, 58 percent of the payroll and 49 percent of the employment information is not identified at 

the county level (county code = 999) and another 15 percent of payroll and 19 percent of employment 

information is suppressed at the county level. Thus there is no county level identification for 73 percent 

(58 + 15) of payroll and 68 percent (49 + 19) of employment information. For Texas, 46 percent of 

payroll and 47 percent of employment information has no county-level identification. 

Among the datasets available to us at Census is the underlying establishment microdata for County 

Business Patterns. Because there is no suppression in these data, we are able to work with precise figures 

rather than estimates. This enables us to resolve the suppression problem. But, we have yet to resolve the 

geography problem in the minerals data. Thus, using the restricted access establishment microdata, we 

can identify county level information for the 15 percent of suppressed payroll and 19 percent of 

suppressed employment data for Louisiana. But we are not able to identify county-level information for 

the 58 percent of payroll and 49 percent of employment data for Louisiana that has county coded “999.” 

To get a better estimate of local involvement in the oil and gas industries, we turned to the restrictedaccess internal microdata files from the 1990 decennial census long form questionnaire. These data have 

place of work coded at a sufficient level of geographic specificity (i.e., place of work as in city, township, 

village, etc.). Combining this information with the labor force status, occupation, and industry of 

respondent we were able to derive a reliable community-level estimate of oil and gas industry 

employment activities. We constructed a percentage share of total employment for oil and gas 

employment as our indicator of community involvement in the oil and gas industry. Currently, this is our 

best answer to our static question that compares communities across space on their level of oil and gas 

involvement. This solution does not provide us with such establishment-level information as size of 

establishment (based on employment, payroll, or revenues), form of establishment (multi- establishment 

firm, ownership structure), and other information in the establishment microdata from the economic 

census. 
49 

Table 4.1 

 

Limitations of County Business Patterns Data on Mining 

 Alabama Florida Louisiana Mississippi Texas 

State Totals

Number of Identified Counties (Valid FIPS) 

With Mining Establishments 

23 27 54 34 205

Number of Identified Counties (Valid FIPS) 

With Suppressed Mining Data 

20 22 28 26 119

State Total Payroll in Mining 67,792 16,229 1,551,169 95,173 3,913,068

State Total Employment in Mining 2,016 501 42,696 3,539 104,151

State Total Establishments 131 101 1,451 345 6,714

Identified Counties (Valid FIPS Code)

Total Payroll in Mining 10,357 1,280 409,970 21,151 2,113,276

Total Employment in Mining 322 58 13,828 743 56,021

Number of Establishments 90 85 1,284 284 6,487

Total Information in Unidentifiable 

Geographic Unit (State Total-Identified)

Payroll (% of State Total in Unidentifiable 

Geographic Units) 

57,435

(85%)

14,949

(92%)

1,141,199

(73%)

74,022 

(78%) 

1,799,792

(46%)

Employment (% of State Total in 

Unidentifiable Geographic Units) 

1,694

(84%)

443

(88%)

28,868

(68%)

2,796 

(79%) 

1,664

(47%)

Non-Identified Counties (999)

Total Payroll in Mining X 6898

(43%)

902,555

(58%)

36,233 

(38%) 

X

Total Employment in Mining X 191

(38%)

20,776

(49%)

1,132 

(32%) 

X

Number of Establishments 41 16 167 61 227

Suppressed Information (State Total-

(Identified+Non-Identified))

Payroll (% of State Total Unaccounted for 

by County Data) 

57,435

(85%)

8,051

 (50%)

238,644

(15%)

37,789 

(40%) 

1,799,792

(46%)

Employment (% of State Total Unaccounted 

for by County Data) 

1,694

(84%)

252

(50%)

8,092

(19%)

1,664 

(47%) 

1,664

(47%)

X=Total Data Suppressed in County Business Patterns 

FIPS=Federal Information Processing Standard 

 
50 

We used this information about local area oil and gas activity in several ways. We used factor analysis on 

measures of industrial and occupational share of employment to identify key underlying dimensions of 

the local economy. In this analysis, we made special note of industries identified in previous work as 

being directly tied to oil and gas or indirectly tied through multiplier effects. 

4.4.2 Analysis of Industrial and Occupational Composition 

A key question for us was: Can we identify characteristics of oil- and gas-involved communities that 

may mitigate the level of volatility in their economies? To address this, we conducted a series of factor 

and cluster analyses, using detailed industry and occupation information from household and 

establishment censuses. Because our units of analysis were roughly 900 incorporated places along the 

Gulf Coast (some quite small), we are unable to present coefficients from those models. We do 

summarize our analyses, however, in Table 4.2. In the table, a set of places like Abbeville are labeled 

“significant professional” and are contrasted with places we label “smaller professional.” Due to 

disclosure limitations, we are not permitted to give an exact accounting of these places. We can say that 

the significant professional group represents about 10 percent of the 900 places in our analysis. 

The first thirteen rows of Table 4.2 report comparisons of selected industrial sector factors that were 

created through a factor analysis of our industrial share of employment data from the 1990 census 

microdata. Because of disclosure considerations, we are not able to report precise figures for these 

comparisons but we are able to report direction and statistical significance. The Abbeville-like set of 

communities with significant professional complexes exhibit higher factor scores on wholesale trade, 

professional services, military and public administration, and lower scores on refineries and ship-related 

activities. There are no statistically significant differences between the two groups of communities in 

terms of metropolitan status or population size. The final nine rows refer to detailed industries within the 

broader sectors described in the upper portion of the table. The significant professional communities have 

higher factor scores on legal services, insurance, banks, medical services, and public administration. 

Based on this avowedly exploratory analysis of data from various sources, we concluded that the 

presence of significant professional service and public administration sectors in a community could 

mitigate the volatility that may occur in communities with significant oil and gas involvement just as our 

field work suggests it has in Abbeville. In particular, the presence of significant legal, financial, and 

medical services along with public administration appears to be key. This is an important finding that this 

study lends to the overall research focus on Abbeville. Our field work suggests rather strongly that the 

underlying community industrial diversity was grounded in oil and gas business services. The Census 

data show also show that Abbeville and similar communities also have expansive professional service 

sectors. Though disclosure rules prevent us from providing a roster of these Gulf Coast communities, they 

do exist in reasonable numbers. Interestingly, the attributes these significant professional communities 

share are quite consistent with those of county seats. Pending detailed analysis that evaluates this further, 

we hypothesize that the agglomeration of professional and business services in county seats may indeed 

be an agent that buffers the community from external economic forces. 
51 

Table 4.2 

 

T-Test for Differences in Means for Significant Professional Service Sector and Smaller Professional 

Service Sector Places with Significant Oil and Gas Involvement 

Measures of Occupation and Industry Structure Significant 

Professional 

Smaller 

Professional 

Business Services Factor Higher Lower 

Wholesale Factor * Higher Lower 

Real Estate, Hotels Factor Higher Lower 

Professional Services Factor * Higher Lower 

Retail Factor Higher Lower 

Refineries Factor * Lower Higher 

Ship Related Factor + Lower Higher 

Transportation Factor Lower Higher 

Agriculture/Personal Services Factor Lower Higher 

Welder Factor Higher Lower 

Military/Public Administration Factor * Higher Lower 

Education and Testing Factor Lower Higher 

Construction Factor Lower Higher 

Population, 1990 Higher Lower 

Proportion Nonmetro Lower Higher 

Legal Services * Higher Lower 

Insurance * Higher Lower 

Banks * Higher Lower 

Medical Services * Higher Lower 

Engineering, Architectural, and Surveying Higher Lower 

Accounting, Auditing, Bookkeeping Higher Lower 

Management and Public Relations Higher Lower 

Public Administration * Higher Lower 

Oil and Gas Extraction Lower Higher 

+ indicates p<.05, one-tailed test 

* indicates p<.05 two-tailed test 
52 

4.5 CONCLUSION

In this project, we explored the Census of Minerals as a source of information about local area oil and 

gas involvement and discovered that we could not complete geographic information for local areas. The 

geographic identification is available for single unit enterprises but not for multi-unit enterprises. These 

multiunit enterprises combine information on a number of establishments in their census reports. While 

these establishments are all within one state, they are not in the same local area (place or county). 

We then examined to the 1990 decennial census as a possible source of information about oil and gas 

involvement of local areas. Using information about industry, occupation, work status, and place of 

work, we were able to construct share measures of local area economic activity. It was necessary to 

conduct this research at the Center for Economic Studies (CES), or at one of the regional data centers 

affiliated with CES, because we can only create the appropriate measures with information available in 

the restricted access internal micro data files. For the decennial data we have the 16 percent sample rather 

than a 1 percent or 5 percent sample and we have information on local geography rather than Public Use 

microdata Areas (PUMAs). The 16 percent sample permits us to get accurate estimates of oil and gas 

information for small areas such as the incorporated places we used (cities, towns, villages, etc.). For the 

economic censuses, we can identification codes for establishments in both 1987 and 1992 and local area 

(place) geographic identification. 

There is other information in these restricted access internal microdata files which we hope to analyze 

in future projects. The economic censuses can be linked over time to identify establishment formations, 

dissolutions, and survivors. In addition to linking establishments over time, there is information on 

employment, wages, and sales/revenues. There is also a long form for multi-unit enterprises and a sample 

of single-unit enterprises. 

There is also great geographic detail available in these files. In the economic census there are 

geographic codes for incorporated places with 2500 or more population, zip codes, county, and state. In 

the decennial files, there is geographic information for place of residence, place of work, and place of 

residence 5 years ago. These codes have detail about census tract, place, county, and state. There is 

information about block and block group also but a lot of this information is allocated for place of work 

and place of residence 5 years ago. These files also contain a great deal of socio-economic detail on 

individuals and households. 

Using the geographic identifiers to link records, we can attach contextual information from the 

economic censuses to the decennial records. We can also summarize information from the decennial 

census data and link it to economic census records to supplement the information in those records or to 

provide context for analysis in which the individual establishment or enterprise piece is the unit of 

analysis. 

Lastly, these data resources do shed important light on a major theme of this set of studies on 

Abbevile. It is clearly the case that other communities along the Gulf Coast exhibit characteristics similar 

to those of Abbeville. We will return to this important finding in the concluding chapter. 
53 

CHAPTER 5 COMMUNITY RESILIENCE AND THE OIL AND GAS 

INDUSTRY: LESSONS FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT 

Project Personnel: Charles M. Tolbert, II, Baylor University 

Deborah M. Tootle, Louisiana State University 

5.1 RECAPITULATION

This research report has described two projects that began with a focus on a small community in 

Southwestern Louisiana in the late 1990s. Previous research with Census data on places in coastal 

Louisiana had shown substantial variation in the extent of socioeconomic impact across communities 

(Tolbert 1995). Abbeville, a small town in rural Vermilion Parish, appeared to be particularly resistant to 

the income volatility generally associated with periods of increasing and decreasing oil and gas 

development activities. Described in Chapter 2, the first project was a community study during 1997 and 

1998. From that study, we concluded that Abbeville’s resiliency reflects a historical and cultural legacy 

rooted in rich social resources, economic development, and a distinctive local industrial structure that 

enables it to weather economic disruptions. Our findings suggested that, unlike most oil and gas 

dependent locations, Abbeville’s industrial base is diverse. At the time, this industrial diversity was 

reflected in part by relatively large routine manufacturing, extractive (agriculture), and business and 

professional services sectors. Our field work suggested that this business and professional services sector 

was, and continues to be, largely oil and gas related as Abbeville is a center for operations and logistics. 

But, our work at the Census Bureau underscored the salience of a corollary sector of professional services 

(banking, finance, law, medical, and public administration) that also thrives in Abbeville. Many of these 

establishments and agencies locate there for parish administration as well as doing business with the oil 

and gas industry. 

We concluded the community study in 1998 during a period of high offshore activity, especially in 

terms of deepwater development. Yet, Abbeville was experiencing a potentially huge negative 

socioeconomic shock: the closure of a Fruit of Loom textile plant which had employed as many as 1,100 

employees. In this context, we began a second research project that had two objectives: 

1) a follow-on community field study to explore the extent to which oil and gas industry 

activity might compensate for the loss of the textile plant (see Chapter 3), and 

2) a Gulf-wide study of coastal places that might derive resiliency from industrial 

diversity based in part on a thriving business and professional service sectors (see 

Chapter 4). 

The plant closure study yielded a richly textured depiction of the community impact that varied at the 

individual level by gender, race, and ethnicity. Because most of the displaced workers were female, 

virtually none of them found employment directly in the oil and gas industry. However, there were many 

signs that other household members’ employment in oil and gas activities helped to sustain some 

displaced workers. More generally, the presence of oil and gas in the local economy added to the local 

industrial diversity and sustained the workers’ households and the community through this tough episode. 

As we became more knowledgeable about the community and its history of ups and downs, it became 

clear that a remarkable resiliency prevails that enables Abbeville to sustain itself. 

In the annals of modern rural social science, this is a community characteristic that has been identified 

only rarely. On the one hand, it may be that only a few communities possess such resiliency. On the other 

hand, it may be that the Abbeville case is so instructive that it provides us with a far better inventory of 

characteristics of vital communities. Our aim in this concluding chapter is to revisit the sources of this 

resilience and to assess the likelihood that other communities might be similarly resilient. Indeed, all of us 

involved in this project strongly believe that there are plenty of communities that exhibit at least some of 

Abbeville’s attributes. Development specialists who focus on cultivating Abbeville-like community 

strengths are building a capacity for resilience. 
54 

5.2 SOURCES OF RESILIENCE

We believe the industrial diversity of the Vermilion area is the primary key to the sustainable local 

economy and to the resilience that Abbeville has exhibited. But, there are other related factors that have 

contributed as well. Before discussing industrial diversity in some detail, we turn to fundamental cultural 

and social attributes that together with the economic diversity are important sources of community 

resilience. These socio-cultural factors are preconditions for effective responses to industrial diversity as 

it plays out in the particular constellation of the Vermilion economy. 

5.2.1 Culture, Ethnicity, and Social Networks 

There can be little doubt that the distinctive cultural heritage of southwestern Louisiana plays a major 

role in Abbeville’s capacity to weather economic ups and downs. Deeply rooted in the culture of 

Acadiana are strong kinship ties, large families, the French tradition, and values of self-reliance, and 

norms of self-provisioning. The social capital embedded in the social networks of long-time residents is 

another important factor in sustaining the community. These social-cultural characteristics predispose the 

population to take advantage of the prevailing economic diversity. In discussing the community with 

residents, we continue to be impressed at the versatility and flexibility they exhibit in their livelihood 

strategies. Members of farm families shift to wage employment as necessary. Those with land resort to 

self-provisioning by raising beef cattle. Many take advantage of nearby abundant seafood resources. 

Proprietors hire more relatives and friends than they really need to staff retail operations. Gardeners and 

small-scale farmers rely at times on direct sales at the thriving town-square farmers market. Though these 

livelihood options are made possible by industrial diversity, they are facilitated by the social and cultural 

traditions of the area. 

5.2.2 Dynamic Economic Diversity 

While agriculture is a mainstay of the local economy, we believe it is the presence of a variety other 

sectors that underpins industrial diversity in Abbeville and the surrounding area. The manufacturing, 

retail, and services—especially business and professional services--are sufficiently robust as to be able to 

offset downturns in the agricultural economy. For example, rice production has been down in Vermilion 

for the last few years. As we were completing our study, depressed rice prices were just beginning to 

show signs of recovery. Just as we have observed in the context of the oil and gas sector, the agricultural 

sector’s problems have not collapsed the local social economy. The same was true for the manufacturing 

sector in the wake of the Fruit of the Loom closure. The local economy exhibits a dynamic diversity in 

which the shifting strengths of various sectors compensate for periodic weaknesses in other sectors. Many 

rural communities must rely on a single sector—typically agriculture or manufacturing. Abbeville’s great 

strength is its multiplicity of active economic sectors. Though each is prone to downturns and volatility, 

the sectors together provide a solid basis for sustainability in the socio-cultural context that typifies 

Abbeville. 

To appreciate these compensating sectors, one must have a longitudinal perspective on local 

industrial diversity. Spanning four years, these two projects have permitted just that. Our continuous 

community presence has also made us attentive to developments that might further enhance the local 

economic diversity. One relatively recent development is suburban neighborhoods on the north side of 

Abbeville. These areas of new home construction give the appearance that Abbeville is becoming a 

bedroom community for nearby and much larger Lafayette. While it is too early for Census 2000 detailed 

data that might confirm the bedroom community thesis, these new, upscale subdivisions are clearly home 

to white collar workers who prefer to reside in Abbeville. Even if they commute the 20 minutes to 

Lafayette, they will bring their earnings back into a community, add further robustness to the local 

economy, and become part of the social and cultural traditions that distinguish the area. 

5.3 RESILIENCE BEYOND ABBEVILLE

The analysis in Chapter 4 tells us that there are more than a handful of communities with diverse local 

economies and, especially, well developed professional and business services sectors. What we cannot tell 

from that analysis is the extent to which the distinctive socio-cultural patterns like Abbeville’s manifest 

themselves elsewhere. That requires in-depth knowledge of communities that is best gained through 
55 

intensive community studies like the ones described here. While we would very much like to say that our 

results are a prescription for community resilience, we caution that a great deal of local familiarity is 

required for planned intervention. The versatility in livelihood strategies that we observed in Abbeville 

was apparent only in detailed conversations with residents. Outreach efforts should be geared to gaining 

this sort of in-depth local knowledge and building on the socio-cultural and industrial diversity strengths 

that a community possesses. 

As surely as we believe there are other vital communities out there, all of us continue to be impressed 

with the resilience and sustainability of Abbeville. It is an exemplary community. 
57 

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63 

APPENDIX A 

 

Guide to Conversations on Plant Closings 
65 

A1.1 Questions (for all respondents EXCEPT displaced workers) 

(Questions 1-3 for oil and gas stakeholders only) 

1. Did your company/business make any overtures toward hiring former Fruit of the 

Loom (FOL) employees? 

 (Probe—contacting the FOL company, advertising for available jobs that targeted 

FOL employees) 

2. Did your company/business hire any former Fruit of the Loom employees after it was 

announced the plant would close down in fall of 1997? 

 (Probe if no) Why do you think you didn’t? 

 (If yes) In what positions did you hire those former FOL employees? 

3. Do you think (other) oil-and gas-related companies might have hired some of those 

FOL employees? 

 (Probe: oilfield service companies, etc.) 

 Why or why not? 

 (Go to question 6 and continue from there)

(Questions 4-5 for SOCIAL SERVICE/AGENCIES ONLY) 

4. Did the Fruit of the Loom closure affect your agency/services? 

 In what ways? 

5. How did your agency respond? 

(ALL RESPONDENTS ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS) 

6. Did the Fruit of the Loom shutdown affect Abbeville? How did the community 

respond? 

 (If yes: In what ways?) 

 (If no: Why not?) 

7. (If not already answered) How do you think city, parish, or state government 

responded? 

8. After Fruit of the Loom employees lost their jobs, where do you think those former 

employees went? 

 (Probe-other jobs elsewhere, unemployment, school, welfare, relocate) 

9. Has the recent slowdown in the oil and gas industry affected Abbeville/business? 

 How has it/ have you responded? 
66 

A1.2 Questions (Displaced Workers Only) 

A. Background 

1. Date of birth 

2. Sex 

3. Race 

4. Length of residence 

5. Education 

6. Length of employment at FOL 

7. Marital Status 

8. Description of family 

B. How were you affected by the FOL plant closure? How did you respond? 

C. How was your family affected? How did your family respond? 

D. Did the FOL closure affect Abbeville? How did the community respond? 

E. How do you think the city, parish, or state government responded? 

F. After losing their jobs, where do you think most of the former FOL employees went? 

G. Do you think that oil and gas industry- related companies hired any of the FOL 

employees? Why or why not? 

H. If you again had the opportunity to work in a manufacturing plant similar to FOL, 

would you? Why or why not? 

I. Has the recent slowdown in the oil and gas industry affected Abbeville? How has the 

community responded? 

J. Why do you live and/or work in Abbeville? 

K. Other people? 
The Department of the Interior Mission

As the Nation's principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has responsibility 

for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural resources. This includes fostering 

sound use of our land and water resources; protecting our fish, wildlife, and biological diversity; 

preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks and historical places; 

and providing for the enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. The Department assesses 

our energy and mineral resources and works to ensure that their development is in the best 

interests of all our people by encouraging stewardship and citizen participation in their care. 

The Department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation communities 

and for people who live in island territories under U.S. administration. 

The Minerals Management Service Mission 

As a bureau of the Department of the Interior, the Minerals Management Service's (MMS) 

primary responsibilities are to manage the mineral resources located on the Nation's Outer 

Continental Shelf (OCS), collect revenue from the Federal OCS and onshore Federal and Indian 

lands, and distribute those revenues. 

Moreover, in working to meet its responsibilities, the Offshore Minerals Management Program 

administers the OCS competitive leasing program and oversees the safe and environmentally 

sound exploration and production of our Nation's offshore natural gas, oil and other mineral 

resources. The MMS Minerals Revenue Management meets its responsibilities by ensuring the 

efficient, timely and accurate collection and disbursement of revenue from mineral leasing and 

production due to Indian tribes and allottees, States and the U.S. Treasury. 

The MMS strives to fulfill its responsibilities through the general guiding principles of: (1) being 

responsive to the public's concerns and interests by maintaining a dialogue with all potentially 

affected parties and (2) carrying out its programs with an emphasis on working to enhance the 

quality of life for all Americans by lending MMS assistance and expertise to economic 

development and environmental protection.