Counties on the edge of Georgia's metro areas are showing some of the fastest job growth rates, according to recently released information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The 2007-2009 national recession hit Georgia hard. Between
December 2007 and December 2009, more than 8% of jobs in the state disappeared.
As we all know now, since then, the state has experienced a
strong rebound in jobs, stronger than the nation as a whole. Since December
2009 through the end of December 2016, the state has gained more than
half-a-million new jobs, more than offsetting previous losses.
The story of job growth in Georgia since the recession has
been the increasing urbanization, as employment growth concentrated in the
state’s metro areas, especially in the Atlanta and Savannah metros.
What is less obvious is that some of the strongest
post-recession growth has been not in the core counties in these metro areas,
but in their so-called “edge counties”, those counties at the periphery, but
still included in the metro areas.
These counties have a host of advantages including lots of
lower price land that can be developed at lower cost, along with lower taxes,
while still being in commuting range of urban centers.
And this story isn’t just about the Atlanta metro area.
Non-core counties are showing remarkable job growth in a variety of metro areas
around Georgia.
The job numbers speak for themselves (December 2009-December
2016):
- Twiggs County (Macon MSA): Added 1,317 jobs (+133.4%)
- Burke County (Augusta MSA): Added 4,570 jobs (+77.0%)
- Jackson County (Atlanta MSA): Added 9,745 jobs (+59.1%)
- Echols County (Valdosta MSA): Added 230 jobs (+45.1%)
- Bryan County (Savannah MSA): Added 2,415 jobs (+42.9%)
- Oconee County (Athens MSA): Added 3,199 jobs (+40.6%)
- Jones County (Macon MSA): Added 1,329 jobs (+40.2%)
- Forsyth County (Atlanta MSA): Added 20,033 jobs (+38.0%)
- Monroe County (Macon MSA): Added 1,871 jobs (+32.8%)
- Troup County (Atlanta MSA): Added 9,816 jobs (+32.7%)
For the most recent time frame (December 2015-December
2016), the story remains the same, with Twiggs, Burke, and Oconee counties showing
the highest percentage job growth for Georgia counties in metro areas, followed
by Meriwether, Murray, and Jackson counties.
Here are the county job growth numbers for the top 10 metro
counties between December 2015 and December 2016 (most recent data available
from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics):
- Twiggs County (Macon MSA): Added 1,156 jobs (+100.7%)
- Burke County (Augusta MSA): Added 3,533 jobs (+50.7%)
- Oconee County (Athens MSA): Added 1,092 jobs (+10.9%)
- Meriwether County (Atlanta MSA): Added 422 jobs (+9.7%)
- Murray County (Dalton MSA & Chattanooga MSA): Added 880 jobs (+9.6%)
- Jackson County (Atlanta MSA): Added 2,115 jobs (+8.8%)
- Lee County (Albany MSA): Added 491 jobs (+8.1%)
- Walton County (Atlanta MSA): Added 1,520 jobs (+7.2%)
- Paulding County (Atlanta MSA): Added 1,531 jobs (+7.0%)
- Oglethorpe County (Athens MSA): Added 107 jobs (+6.9%)
Admittedly, many of these counties start from a low
employment base, which makes it easier to reach the high percentage increases,
but consistently, these high job growth counties share one common feature: They
are located in a metro area, but are not the core county for that area.
The fast growth of these “edge counties” calls into question
earlier reports that people were abandoning the suburbs in favor of urban cores.
Judging from the data, it appears
that while Georgia is participating in the general trend towards urban areas
over rural ones, many citizens of the state are increasingly able to find work
not in the urban core but at the outer edges of these increasingly metro areas.
