The story of the Atlanta metro region has been a story of
growth and expansion from the original core counties of Fulton and DeKalb
outward, and the Georgia High-Tech I-85 Corridor in the northeast section of
the state is an emerging labor market that deserves more attention.
As metro area employment has grown from 2.1 million in 2001
to 2.6 million in 2020, growth pushed out mainly to the north and northwest
into northern Fulton County, as well as Cherokee, Cobb, Forsyth, and Gwinnett
counties, along with the Gainesville, Ga., MSA that includes only north central
Hall County.
One area that stands to benefit from continued metro Atlanta
growth are the counties along interstate highway I-85 that connects Atlanta
through Greenville, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina with
Richmond, Virginia.
In all, six counties make up the labor market that is
anchored at one end by fast-growing Gwinnett County, the corridor extends up to
Hart County, which borders South Carolina. Other counties include Banks,
Barrow, Franklin, and Jackson.
Lower land prices, access to growing centers, such as
Atlanta using the I-85 interstate highway and rail freight lines, as well as a
lower average wages related to a lower cost of living are encouraging increases
in both population and jobs in the corridor.
Unlike Silicon Valley, or Boston’s Route 128 Technology
Corridor, the I-85 corridor is likely to develop primarily with a manufacturing
and distribution supply-chain focus.
Below is a profile of the corridor.
Population
Census Bureau figures show that the counties in or closest
to the Atlanta metro area have shown the most growth from 2010 to 2019, while
those farther away from Atlanta have slower growth rates but contain large areas
of undeveloped land to accommodate future growth.
The six counties along the corridor posted a combined
population growth rate of 16 percent over the nine-year period, compared to a
9.6 percent growth rate for the state. Jackson and Barrow counties each
recorded growth of more than 20 percent over the past nine years, while Gwinnett
County, with 80 percent of the six counties’ total population, grew at a
remarkable 16.3 percent.
With population growth comes demand for additional goods and
services and also an increasing labor force available to meet employers’
demands for workers.
Demographics
The Census Business Bureau tells that the six counties in
the corridor have a higher percentage of the working age population in the
labor force compared to the state (67.2 percent compared to 63.2 percent), with
a lower percent in poverty (11.2 percent compared to 15.1 percent).
African-Americans make up 24.4 percent of the population
compared to 31.6 percent statewide, while Hispanics (of any race) make up 18.7
percent compared to 9.5 percent statewide. Nearly 22 percent of the population
is foreign-born, where that percentage drops to 10.1 percent for the state. It
is likely that the largest proportion of the foreign-born reside in Gwinnett
County with fewer as you travel towards the state border.
As an aside, the number of people who spoke an Asian or
Pacific Island language at home was nearly 3x as large in the corridor counties
(3.4 percent vs. 1.1 percent statewide). Again, it is likely that Gwinnett
County residents have a large impact on these numbers.
Employment
From the end of 2001 through 2020, employment in the
corridor has increased by nearly 28 percent compared to Georgia’s statewide
gain of nearly 16 percent.
Gwinnett County, on the southwest end of the corridor,
currently makes up over 80 percent of the corridor’s labor market, so that one
county has a huge influence on the corridor’s employment statistics. While the Gwinnett
County’s private sector employment has grown by more than 53,000 jobs, the
other five counties in the corridor have added an additional 30,000 jobs,
resulting in an employment growth rate of nearly 28 percent since the end of
calendar year 2001.
Goods-producing and goods distribution has been particularly
strong in the counties that make up the corridor. With lots of undeveloped land
close to a major metro area and along an interstate highway and rail system, the
corridor smaller losses in manufacturing employment compared to the state over
the past 19 years while recording larger increases in employment in
transportation and warehousing.
Since 2001, manufacturing employment has declined by 17 percent,
while employment in transportation and warehousing have risen by 2.5x. In
comparison, the state’s manufacturing dropped by 23 percent, while employment
in transportation and warehousing grew by 36 percent.
If reshoring of manufacturing, as being now discussed,
becomes a fact, it is likely that the counties along the corridor will benefit
disproportionately.
The announcement of creation of a new inland port tied to
the Port of Savannah in neighboring Hall County will also support manufacturing
and warehousing in the adjacent counties of Banks and Jackson counties.
Wages
As for wages, compared to the average annual private sector
pay of $67,068 for the Atlanta metro area in 2020, average annual pay in the
six counties ranged from $36,431 in Banks County to $58,224 in Gwinnett County,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and
Wages. This compares to average private sector pay in Georgia at $59,805, and
$64,238 for the U.S.
For goods-producing industries (a sector that includes natural
resources, construction, and manufacturing), average pay ranged from $45,757 in
Franklin County to $67,842 in Gwinnett County, with the state averaging
$61,461.
Average income in the six-county corridor was $87,284, $4,800
more than for Georgia as a whole.
Conclusion
The Georgia High-Tech I-85 Corridor represents an emerging
labor market located along a major north-south interstate highway and near the
growing Atlanta metropolitan region. Emerging labor markets can be difficult to
neatly define, as they are not usually included in the regular definitions of
statistical areas designated by Federal statistical agencies such as Census and
Bureau of Labor Statistics, but that makes watching them grow even more
interesting.
Continued economic growth in the Southeast, along with
manufacturing reshoring and the possibility of increased exports through the
Port of Savannah, will all contribute to the corridor’s economic future.
