Accounting firm Ernst & Young plans to open an $8.5 million global IT center in Alpharetta that will bring 400 new jobs to the region over the next five years, making it the latest in a string of companies adding high-skilled jobs in the metro Atlanta area.
The firm plans to locate the center in a suburban development off Lakewood Parkway, and it will fill the jobs through a combination of new hires and transfers. It seeks to hire a range of new positions, including project managers, business analysts and software engineers.
A $1 million grant from a state economic development fund helped seal the Ernst & Young deal. The firm’s decision is the latest in what Gov. Nathan Deal called a “wave of technology-focused investment” in metro Atlanta.
Automaker General Motors said in January it would build a $26 million technology development center in nearby Roswell that would employ about 1,000 workers. And software firm AirWatch recently announced it would add 800 new jobs at its Sandy Springs headquarters.
The push for these high-skilled — and typically high-paying — positions is the result of new efforts by state and metro economic development officials to pursue so-called “knowledge-based jobs” centered on science and technology.
These types of centers attract a highly educated workforce to move nearby, beefing up the local tax base. And they also tend to lure other high-tech companies to move nearby and spawn startup companies from the talent they attract.
“In terms of available workforce, technology and expertise in these fields, Georgia can compete with any state in this country — or with any other country, for that matter,” said Chris Cummiskey, who heads Georgia’s Economic Development Department.
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