Georgia, Metro Atlanta feel weight of unsettled economic conditions

ATLANTA — Georgia is enduring its share of fallout from federal layoffs and spending cuts, less tourism from abroad to a pullback in film and TV spending by big Hollywood studios. 

But the state’s multifaceted economy is also benefiting from a boom in data center construction, continued in-migration of retirees, and an expected boost to the aerospace industry due to European NATO nations pledging to boost defense spending in coming years, according to Rajeev Dhawan of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business.

Dhawan delivered the semi-annual forecast during his Aug. 28 conference. 

Job additions in calendar year 2024 totaled 41,900, much lower than the 66,800 jobs added in 2023. This pace was incidentally half of the rate of job creation seen from 2017 to 2019. In the first half of 2025 the state added only 11,700 jobs.

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