Atlanta - Economy

Economy

Encompassing $304 billion, the Atlanta metropolitan area is the eighth-largest economy in the country and 17th-largest in the world. Corporate operations comprise a large portion of the Atlanta’s economy, with the city serving as the regional, national, or global headquarters for many corporations. Atlanta contains the country’s third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies, and the city is the global headquarters of corporations such as The Coca-Cola Company, The Home Depot, Delta Air Lines, AT&T Mobility, UPS, and Newell-Rubbermaid. Over 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies conduct business operations in the Atlanta metropolitan area, and the region hosts offices of about 1,250 multinational corporations. Many corporations are drawn to Atlanta on account of the city’s educated workforce; as of 2010, nearly 43% of adults in the city of Atlanta have college degrees, compared to 27% in the nation as a whole and 41% in Boston.

Atlanta began as a railroad town and logistics has remained a major component of the city’s economy to this day. Atlanta is an important rail junction and contains major classification yards for Norfolk Southern and CSX. Since its construction in the 1950s, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has served as a key engine of Atlanta’s economic growth. Delta Air Lines, the city's largest employer and the metro area’s third largest, operates the world’s largest airline hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and has helped make Hartsfield-Jackson the world's busiest airport, both in terms of passenger traffic and aircraft operations. Partly due to the airport, Atlanta has become a hub for diplomatic missions; as of 2012, the city contains 25 general consulates, the seventh-highest concentration of diplomatic missions in the United States.

Media is also an important aspect of Atlanta’s economy. The city is a major cable television programming center. Ted Turner established the headquarters of both the Cable News Network (CNN) and the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) in Atlanta. Cox Enterprises, the country’s third-largest cable television service and the publisher of over a dozen major American newspapers, is headquartered in the city. NBC Universal’s The Weather Channel is also headquartered in Atlanta.

Largely due to a state-wide tax incentive enacted in 2005, the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act, which awards qualified productions a transferable income tax credit of 20% of all in-state costs for film and television investments of $500,000 or more, Atlanta has become a center for film and television production. Film and television production facilities in Atlanta include Turner Studios, Tyler Perry Studios, Williams Street Productions, and the EUE/Screen Gems soundstages. Film and television production injected $1 billion into Georgia’s economy in 2010, with Atlanta garnering most of the projects. Atlanta has gained recognition as a center of production of horror and zombie-related productions, with ‘‘Atlanta’’ magazine dubbing the city the "Zombie Capital of the World".

Compared to its peer cities, Atlanta’s economy has been disproportionately affected by the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent recession. The city’s economic problems are displayed in its elevated unemployment rate, declining real income levels, and depressed housing market. From 2010-2011, Atlanta saw a 0.9% contraction in employment and a meager 0.4% rise in income. As of 2012, the unemployment rate in Atlanta was over 9%, higher the national average of 8.2%. These dismal statistics have garnered Atlanta recognition as one of the world’s worst economic performers, with the city’s economy earning a ranking of 189 among 200 global cities, down from a ranking of 89 during the 1990s, when the city realized 1.6% income growth and 2.6% employment growth. However, even when the 2008-2009 period is excluded, the 2001-2007 period is still one of the worst on record for Atlanta: the city never recovered the jobs it lost during the Early 2000s recession, and per capita income declined nearly 5% from 2000 to 2006, the largest decline among major U.S. cities. Thus, Atlanta’s current economic crisis was only worsened, and not caused, by the Recession. Adding to the city’s employment and income woes is the spectacular collapse of its housing market. Atlanta home prices fell by 2.1% in January 2012, reaching levels not seen since 1996, a decline that measured among the worst in the country. Compared with a year earlier, the average home price in Atlanta fell 17.3% in February 2012, the largest annual drop in the history of the index for any city. Atlanta home values average $85,000 as of January 2012, second-worst among major metropolitan areas, coming in just behind Detroit. This unprecedented collapse in home prices has led some economists to deem Atlanta the worst housing market in the country.