Atlanta Overview

Atlanta offers a rare mix of Southern hospitality, dynamic city life, and cultural and corporate diversity. Due to modest hiring conditions and a depressed real estate market, the region is having more difficulty rebounding from the recession than other major cities. However, the Atlanta job market looks to have a promising future based on its talented workforce of 2.7 million.

Atlanta Job Opportunities

Atlanta’s corporate base is strong in logistics, bioscience and health IT. In addition, the city is headquarters for such well-known brands as Coca-Cola and Home Depot and home to such university powerhouses as Emory, Georgia State and Georgia Tech.

Trade, transportation and utilities account for nearly 25 percent of jobs in Atlanta, followed by professional/business services. Both sectors have been reporting strong growth. On the other hand, the Atlanta region has seen continued decline in the government and financial services sectors.

Atlanta Employment Trends

Atlanta’s employment conditions, which were hampered during the recession, are slowly improving. The Atlanta unemployment rate, which was 10 percent or higher for most of 2010, was in single-digit territory for much of 2011 and into the first half of 2012. After declining for nearly two years, the size of the employment pool has been increasing since mid-2010. More recently, online Atlanta job postings have increased.

Moody’s Analytics expects Atlanta jobs to increase 2.5 percent between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013, nearly double the 1.3 percent increase expected in the nation’s job supply during that time.