State Overview
In this section, you will find information and demographic data regarding Georgia’s economic, employment and population trends. The data includes statistics for the entire state as well as separate and comparable entries for the Atlanta and Mid Markets (Athens, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Rome and Savannah).
Georgia continues to be a leading state for population growth, with a total growth rate of more than 20 percent since 2000. This growth is projected to continue increasing over the next two decades.
The cost of living in major Georgia cities still remains below the national average. However, these numbers are increasing as the state begins to rebound from the recession. This is especially seen in Atlanta and Augusta.
While the average annual wage paid remains below the national average, Georgia saw less of a decrease compared with the national average. This means Georgia continues to gain ground on closing the gap between its average paid wage and the overall national average. Once again, Georgia’s continued rise in the private sector average annual wage was a contributing factor in this is. Though still below the national average, which also showed gains for 2010, Georgia continues to trend upward.
Georgia's technology sector has a major impact on the state’s economy. This sector, including everything from software companies to aerospace manufactures, is responsible for 17 percent of the Georgia’s Gross Domestic Product, and both directly and indirectly provides over 600,000 jobs within the state.
Though Georgia does lag behind some benchmark states such as Massachusetts, California and North Carolina in earned bachelor’s degrees, we continue to be on target with the national average. However, Georgia is below the national average for high school diplomas and those in the over 25 demographic holding neither a diploma nor a bachelor’s degree.
Although Georgia’s personal income growth has continued to trend upward since 2009, it still continues to lag behind the national average.
The strong, then slowing labor force growth downturn has continued, mainly in non-farm employment. Once well above the national average, the economic recession has caused Georgia’s employment growth to continue to decline below the national average begins to recover, despite forecasts of a slight upturn for 2012.
Georgia’s private establishment growth, which once exceeded the national average, continues to rank worse than the national average. Recent years had seen Georgia’s growth in this area steadily increase. However, the most recent data shows that Georgia’s private establishment growth has fallen well below that of the national average’s recovery, despite recent numbers showing that Georgia’s has shown a slight upward trend.
Georgia’s unemployment rate has continued to remain higher than the national average.
