CenturyLink spawns growth

"Many of those indirect jobs, probably the majority of them, will be of like value," said Bob Eisenstadt, director of the University of Louisiana at Monroe's Center for Business and Economic Technology. "That's the power of this expansion.

"Securing CenturyLink's headquarters in Monroe provides economic development opportunities for other companies that will locate there to do business with CenturyLink," Jindal said.

Post said most of the new CenturyLink jobs will require skill sets in information innovation, engineering and accounting, which are all high-wage professions.

Fortune 500 company headquartered in your city

"When you have a Fortune 500 company headquartered in your city, it means companies that want to do business with CenturyLink often have to come here to get to the decision makers," Eisenstadt said. "That would be the case for vendors who might as a matter of fact open operations here to serve CenturyLink or for those who spend time in Monroe and create more demand for services like hotels and restaurants and transportation.

Post said many of the companies locating nearly CenturyLink "will have high-tech operations relating to everything from digital equipment to cloud computing."