Employment

Metro Atlanta ranks among the top five in the nation in net new-job growth for the last decade, adding nearly 460,000 new jobs. Metro Atlanta is forecasted to be the third-largest job generator over the next decade. In addition to a well-diversified private sector, a large number of federal agencies are represented in the Atlanta employment base. Among these federal agencies are the Sixth Federal Reserve District, the Fourth District of the Federal Home Loan Bank, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and the U. S. Armed Forces Command.

According to the Georgia State University Economic Forecasting Department at its most recent conference in November 2007, Atlanta will gain 54,300 jobs in 2007 and add 42,300 jobs in 2008. Unemployment in Atlanta remained steady at 4.6 percent in 2007, slightly below the projected unemployment rate for the U.S. of 4.8 percent for the same time period.