Atlanta & Local Affairs
Georgia’s deepwater ports are hundreds of miles from Atlanta, but the state port authority says their employment footprint reaches deep into the metro economy.
The Georgia Ports Authority said October 1 that port activity supports nearly 278,000 full- and part-time jobs in the Atlanta region. The figure comes from an economic-impact study by the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, which the authority broke out into 12 regional estimates.
Statewide, the authority says Georgia’s ports support more than 605,000 jobs. Its September 1 release on the same study put the total at 605,616 full- and part-time jobs, yielding $44 billion in annual income.
Fulton leads an 11-county total
The authority’s Atlanta figure covers 11 counties. Fulton County accounts for the largest share, with 100,872 jobs, followed by Gwinnett (44,463), Cobb (41,946), DeKalb (29,635) and Clayton (20,747).
The remaining counties are Forsyth (9,497), Henry (7,991), Cherokee (7,158), Fayette (5,936), Douglas (5,641) and Rockdale (4,012). Together, the 11 counties add up to 277,898 jobs.
That makes the Atlanta region the largest of the authority’s 12 regional figures, more than double the next-largest, the Coastal region, at 110,368.
“Twelve percent of statewide employment, or almost one out of every eight Georgia jobs, is in some way dependent on the ports,” said Jeff Humphreys of the Terry College’s Selig Center for Economic Growth, who conducted the study.
What the number measures
The study counts jobs at Georgia businesses that are supported by port activity, not jobs at the ports themselves. The authority’s release does not break the Atlanta total down by industry or occupation, so it does not show how many of those positions are in warehousing, trucking or any other specific line of work.
For job seekers, the practical takeaway is narrower but still useful: the economic reach of Savannah and Brunswick is not confined to the coast, and the largest concentration of port-supported employment the study identifies is in metro Atlanta.
“Every shipment through Savannah and Brunswick fuels Georgia’s economy, supporting businesses, families and communities,” Georgia Ports CEO Griff Lynch said.
Gov. Brian Kemp said the report “confirms what we’ve seen for years: our Ports are exceptional drivers of job creation and economic activity, both in the booming coastal region and in communities across Georgia.”
The wider footprint
The study puts port-related sales at $181 billion across Georgia, equal to 12% of the state’s total economic output, up from 11% in fiscal 2024. The authority says port activity also generates $10 billion in federal taxes, $3 billion in state taxes and $3 billion in local taxes.
The authority says it is in the midst of a self-financed, $5 billion investment program spanning Savannah, Brunswick and inland terminals. The Port of Savannah handled 5.67 million twenty-foot equivalent container units in fiscal 2026, according to the authority.
For metro Atlanta, the signal is the scale of the connection: by the port authority’s count, a coastal trade system supports more jobs in the Atlanta region than in any other part of the state.
Sources
- Georgia Ports Authority, “Georgia Ports supports nearly 278,000 jobs in Atlanta region,” October 1, 2026. https://gaports.com/press-releases/georgia-ports-supports-nearly-278000-jobs-in-atlanta-region/
- Georgia Ports Authority, statewide regional-impact release, October 1, 2026. https://gaports.com/press-releases/georgia-ports-supports-over-605000-jobs-statewide/
- Georgia Ports Authority, “Georgia Ports generates $181 billion in economic impact annually, supports 605,000 jobs,” September 1, 2026. https://gaports.com/press-releases/georgia-ports-generates-181-billion-in-economic-impact-annually-supports-605000-jobs/
Featured photo: Quay cranes lift containers off a ship at the Port of Savannah in July 2021. The port authority’s new study counts jobs tied to port activity well beyond the coast. Photo: Jerry Glaser, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Cropped from the original.
