Despite the general perception that it is the metropolitan areas of Georgia that are its economic engines, the rate of year over year job growth is actually higher outside of those metropolitan areas.  And some of your Metro areas have very dismal growth, despite large state and federal expenditures in those areas.

Metro areas enjoyed a 2.29% increase in jobs over the last twelve months while the state overall had a 2.76% increase.  That is what caught my attention and had me dig just a bit deeper.

Doing a bit of math, I backed in to the non-Metro employment to discover that jobs added outside of Metro areas were a whopping 5.25% year over year.

Review the numbers in the table below.  I found them surprising.  Perhaps Georgia should be doing more to encourage non-Metro growth going forward.

One would think with all of the tax breaks and economic development authorities that they would easily lead the state in new jobs.  We will have to think again.

If the perception is that the Metro areas have the jobs, and more people move there, this would actually hold wages down as supply outstrips demand.  Yet those very same people drive up the cost of housing, traffic worsens, and your overall living costs are higher in the Metro areas than in the non-Metro areas.

Maybe it’s time to rethink where you might want to work and live.

Data Source:http://www.deptofnumbers.com/employment/georgia/