I called up Augusta Economic Development Authority president Cal Wray last week to gauge his opinion on a few business proposals I’d read about on the Augusta Commission agenda. At the end of the call, I asked him if there was anything else I should know about or any news he’d like to share.
“Well, are you coming to the luncheon tomorrow?” Wray asked.
He was referring to a series of economic outlook conferences hosted at various cities throughout Georgia, sponsored UGA’s Terry College of Business. Dr. Benjamin Ayers, dean of the college, visited the Augusta Mariott to join Wray in showing a snapshot of where business in Georgia is and where it’s going.
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While Ayers spoke from a zoomed-out, national and state perspective, and Wray brought more local details, both agreed that the outlook is positive.
“Last year, we predicted that economic recovery would occur in three phases: an initial bounce after business re-opened; choppy economic growth due to widespread vaccination or natural immunity; then, a steady growth. That steady growth is what we are expecting for 2022,” Ayers said. “Relative to our history, this is going to be a good year for economic growth.”
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He said that growth will be slower than what was observed in 2021, but it would be less erratic and more wide-spread than in the past two years. Ayers said he expects full recovery in terms of jobs throughout the nation.
“While the forecast is positive, it would not be a forecast if it didn’t share any risks,” Ayers said. “We are mostly concerned with supply problems, both raw materials and finished goods. Those concerns are coupled with a shortage of workers both regionally and nationally.”
The dean said that the pandemic is clearly not over, and that the hope is that every new wave of cases will do less damage to the economy, an effect already seen. More deadly variants are a concern, but Ayers said he is not expecting another full economic shutdown to come as a result of the pandemic.
Area Development Magazine recently named Georgia as the best state for doing business for the eighth consecutive year. Ayers made note of this and said that corporations will continue to look to Georgia as a conducive environment, which will bring more jobs and investment in the state.
“We expect a 3.2% increase in job openings in our state, compared to a 2.7% rate for the nation as a whole,” he said.
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Wray spoke after Ayers and updated attendees on the status of multiple large-scale corporate partnerships being established in the CSRA; namely Aurubis and PureCycle. Both companies are soon to begin constructing their plants in the Augusta Corporate Park, where a Starbucks facility is already operating.
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Wray and his team at the AEDA experienced a healthy 2021, actually increasing the number of projects committed, potential investments and jobs brought to the CSRA than the past two years.
Similar to what Ayers said, Wray is concerned about the labor force in the CSRA.
“The biggest piece is this: our area labor force in February 2020 was 272,000 people. In October of 2021, 266,000 people. We’ve got 6,000 people not in the labor force anymore at all,” Wray said.
Re-immersing those lost from the labor force remains a big concern for the AEDA, but Wray said the outlook for 2022 is very healthy, especially with new corporate partners choosing Augusta throughout the last year.
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com
