A bronze statue of Jefferson stands at the entrance of the General Government Complex on Derbigny Street in Gretna.

The completion of Veterans Highway in the late 1950s, following a route parallel to Airline but further north, stimulated more development.

Similar to the development trajectory observed by other U.S. suburban areas, Jefferson began to enjoy a significant employment base by the 1970s and 1980s, shedding its earlier role as a simple bedroom community.

In East Jefferson, the Causeway Boulevard corridor grew into a commercial office node, while the Elmwood neighborhood developed as a center for light manufacturing and distribution.

These trends were catalyzed by Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed much of New Orleans' low-income housing and propelled further numbers of lower-income individuals into Jefferson Parish.

Despite these challenges, Jefferson Parish still contains the largest number of middle class residents in metropolitan New Orleans and acts as the retail hub for the entire metro area.

On the East Bank, widespread flooding occurred, especially in the eastern part of the parish, as well as much wind damage.

There were no open grocery stores or gas stations, and almost the entire parish had no electric, water, or sewerage services.

Moreover, evacuations out of New Orleans were continuing to be staged from the heart of Metairie at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Causeway Boulevard, and traffic throughout the area was primarily restricted to emergency and utility vehicles.

On September 4, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard broke down on Meet the Press[6] RUSSERT: You just heard the director of Homeland Security's explanation of what has happened this last week.

Nobody's coming to get us…[citation needed]By the following weekend, the local electrical utility, Entergy, had restored power to large swaths of Jefferson Parish, and the parish public works department had restored water and sewer service to most of the areas with power.

Nevertheless, some independent-minded residents began moving back into the parish even before Broussard issued a formal "all-clear", and some gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants and a Home Depot were in operation during this time.

The son of the drowned woman was later identified as Thomas Rodrigue, who replied, "No, no, that's not true," when told of Broussard's account.

Crucially, Jefferson's levees and floodwalls did not fail in the wake of Katrina, enabling floodwaters to be rapidly pumped out.

[7] Flooding on the east bank has been frequently attributed to the decision by parish leadership to deactivate the stormwater pumping systems and evacuate the operators during the storm.

Katrina's substantial storm surge may have swamped even operating pumping stations but Broussard's activation of the parish's "Doomsday Plan" is the most frequently cited reason for the flooding in all areas of the east bank except Old Metairie and parts of Harahan.

Water resulting from the backflow through the non-operating pumping stations, as well as storm-related rainwater, remained on the streets and in the homes of residents of Metairie and Kenner for a day and a half.

There are also plans to add manual closures on the pumping stations due to the failure of the compressed air systems during Katrina's storm surge.

A temporary plan was devised to pool water at the Pontiff Playground and south of Airline Drive and to divert some into other Jefferson Parish drainage canals.

A longer-term project to divert water from this vulnerable area into the Mississippi River has also been suggested, although its expense appears to be prohibitive.

Initially, as many as 6,000 evacuees were permitted to cross and were shuttled out of the area on buses; however, that operation was eventually discontinued as available fuel supplies were exhausted.

Without transportation or sufficient supplies of food or water, west bank law enforcement personnel determined that they were unable to further assist the evacuees.

It was also believed at that time that federal relief efforts and supplies were soon to be concentrated in the downtown area of New Orleans.

Due to the lack of effective communications during the crisis, some New Orleans police officers independently continued to direct evacuees to buses across the bridge that were no longer operational.

A business report released in April 2007 found Jefferson Parish led the nation in job growth, for the quarter ending September 30, 2006, [8] as rebuilding continued after Hurricane Katrina.

The Mississippi River is located around the midpoint of Jefferson Parish flowing generally in a north-west to south-east direction.

[31][32] Since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the parish has been laboring on a plan for redeveloping and diversifying its economy to attract more businesses.

As of October 1, 2014 there were fewer than 18,000 students in Jefferson Parish, or over 25% of the children of the ages for K-12 education, who attended private schools approved by the State of Louisiana.

[36] Cynthia Lee-Sheng, daughter of former Sheriff Harry Lee is the current President of Jefferson Parish, elected in 2019.

[39] Since 2008, in contrast to much of the rest of Louisiana shifting somewhat towards the Republicans, Jefferson Parish appears to be trending slightly Democratic at the presidential level.