REGIONAL ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

The Macon-Warner Robins Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), consisting of Bibb, Houston, Jones, Peach and Twiggs Counties, is an important component of the economy for the Middle Georgia area.  The Macon-Warner Robins MSA has the third largest economy within metropolitan statistical areas of Georgia¹.  The nonagricultural jobs increased from 129,800 in 1990 to 151,100 in 1999 and is expected to grow by 1.3 percent in 2000.  Although nonagricultural employment in the Macon-Warner Robins MSA grew at a slower rate than the state's average between 1990 and 1998, services, the area's largest economic sector, increased its number of jobs at an average annual rate of 5.1 percent.  The employment rate for this region increased significantly by 17.8 percent year-over-year rate in 1996.  The employment rate continued to increase in 1997 at 3.7 percent and slowed down to 1.3 percent growth in 1998.  In the first nine months of 1999, nonagricultural employment grew by only .6 percent.

The unemployment rate for the Macon-Warner Robins MSA increased from 4.0 percent in 1998 to 4.7 percent in 1999.  The unemployment rate slightly decreased from January 2000 to September 2000 to 4.5 percent.  The unemployment rate for this area has been approximately a full percentage point higher than the state's average.  Additionally, the employment rate for the Macon-Warner Robins MSA should increase 1.3 percent due to an increase in services¹.

Wholesale and retail trade and government each account for 23 percent of the nonagricultural employment for 1999.  In the 1990s, government jobs declined but wholesale and retail trade increased to 2.3 percent annual growth.  Between 1990 and 1998, jobs in insurance and real estate and the number of jobs in construction employment showed an increase for the Macon-Warner Robins MSA.  Whereas, finance jobs increased steadily at an annual percentage rate of 4.5 percent.

The number of single-family building permits reached unparalleled levels in almost a decade in the first nine months of 1999.  Although close to two-thirds of Georgia's residential construction permits were issued in the Atlanta MSA, the Macon-Warner Robins MSA led all other MSAs in Georgia with a sharp increase in both single and multi-unit construction (20.3 and 140.3, respectively).

¹ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Georgia Department of Labor; Selig Center for Economic Growth, University of Georgia, December 1999.
 

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