Jobs await in recession-resistant Georgia communities

Pockets of (relative) prosperity abound across Georgia, if you know where to look. All share a common job-generating denominator: the government.

In a recession that slammed the private sector -- manufacturing, construction and retail in particular -- the public sector added tens of thousands of jobs in the three key sectors of the military, education and health care.

“We’re in a strong hiring mode here,” said Max Wyche, deputy personnel director at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center near Perry. “As far as middle Georgia goes, we have a very important impact on the local economy.”

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a nationwide shuffling of military resources, have boosted civilian and military employment in and around Warner Robins, Hinesville (Fort Stewart) and Columbus (Fort Benning). The new jobs pump millions of dollars into local communities and help to offset the collapse in the housing and manufacturing sectors.

Government jobs are also a bulwark against Depression-like conditions for many communities. In metro Athens, for example, education and health care account for 43 percent of all jobs, according to statistics provided The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by the Georgia Department of Labor.

“Government has been a huge job creation engine for most of the 1990s and through the early part of this century,” said Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond in an interview. “The communities that have been most successful have benefited from a huge government investment.”

There were about 3.9 million non-farm jobs in Georgia last year, according to the Labor Department. Nearly 700,000 of those jobs -- about 18 percent -- came from federal, state and local governments.

Both the federal and state governments added jobs in Georgia last year; local governments shed 4,100 jobs after a decade of growth.

In all, 2009 was a record-setting year for job losses. Not since employment records were first tallied – in 1939 – had Georgia lost so many jobs (225,600).

But the current statewide unemployment rate of 10.6 percent -- another record -- isn’t equitably shared across Georgia. Oconee County, a bedroom community for Athens and the University of Georgia, notched a record-low jobless rate of 6 percent last month.

“Athens and Oconee County have always had the lowest, or close to the lowest, unemployment rates in the state regardless of where we are in the business cycle,” said UGA economist Jeffrey Humphreys. “The university is a very stable, major employer.”

UGA employed 8,700 people during the 2008 fiscal year, Humphreys said, which “supported” 10,700 off-campus jobs. Civilian and military jobs at Warner Robins kicked $3.3 billion into the local economy that same year, according to the U.S. Air Force.

“The private sector benefits from public sector investment,” Thurmond said. “Government workers buy groceries, homes and clothes.”

As the recession lingers, the government is likely to continue its out-sized recovery role, at least in the near term. The White House reported recently that the federal economic stimulus saved or created 84,000 jobs in Georgia during the first quarter of 2010. As the United States escalates the war in Afghanistan, military spending remains high; meanwhile, health care reform, combined with an aging population, will likely lead to more doctors, nurses and medical technicians. And while state and local communities pare education budgets, teaching is expected to eventually rebound as a growth industry in Georgia.

“Unlike the private sector, governments depend on tax revenues that come from a wide variety of sources, industries and households,” Humphreys said. “This is an unusual recession and revenues haven’t held up nearly as well as they typically do. But the tax revenue streams provide a lot of financial stability.”

A diverse economy, Thurmond and others say, is critical for a region’s economic survival during a recession. Civilian military jobs comprise about 16 percent of the jobs in the Hinesville-Fort Stewart region, for example. Education (13 percent) and health care (7 percent) boost the region’s employment diversity.

The U.S. Department of Defense tallies one-fourth of the jobs in the Warner Robins area, a region which lost a negligible .2 percent of its workforce during the recession.

The 402 Maintenance Wing will add another 400 to 500 employees by year’s end. It has already taken on 800 new mechanics, sheet metal workers and software engineers to keep airborne the C-130s and F-15s.

“We really anticipate a healthy, robust work force here,” Wyche said. “In this area, we’re trying to pull our load.”