News

Fayette Employment Estimates

by Matt Forshee • February 28, 2009

In this article, we’re going to look at the Quality of the jobs that are currently in Fayette County. These are the jobs that are in our factories, our offices, our stores and our restaurants.

Based on the Georgia Department of Labor’s Quarterly Industrial Mix for Fayette County, by the 2nd quarter of 2008, 20% of all jobs in Fayette County were in the top five highest-paying sectors. The highest paying sectors were:

• (Employment Sector – Average Monthly Wage)
• Federal Government – $7,475
• Transportation and Warehousing – $4,567
• Wholesale Trade – $4,398
• Professional, Scientific & Technical Services – $4,151
• Finance and Insurance – $3,991

In contrast, at the end of 2nd quarter 2008, 34% of all jobs in Fayette County were in the five lowest paying sectors. The lowest paying sectors were:

• (Employment Sector – Average Monthly Wage)
• Arts, Entertainment and Recreation – $1,040
• Accommodation and Food Service – $1,083
• Education Service – $1,365
• Retail Trade – $1,816
• Other Services – $2,297

Between 2005 and 2007, Fayette County added 377 of the highest paying sector jobs. Though good, it pales in comparison to the 1,532 jobs Fayette added during that same time period in the five lowest paying sectors.

The below chart illustrates this trend. the chart represents several aspects of the County’s employment. The horizontal axis shows absolute job change, the vertical axis represents average monthly salary of the job sectors, while the size of the bubble represents the relative size of the job sector in the county. For example, the “Retail” bubble is the largest, meaning that the Retail sector employs the most people in the county.

From Wage Data

The chart is also split into four quadrants, representing the following:

• Quadrant I represents the addition of high-paying jobs.

• Quadrant II represents the loss of high-paying jobs.

• Quadrant III represents the loss of low-paying _jobs.

• Quadrant IV represents the addition of low-paying _jobs.

Some key insights to point out include:

• Our highest paying sector during this time period was Federal Government; however, it isn’t a quickly growing field. We only added 50 jobs in this sector during this time period.

• Our lowest paying sector is Accomodation and Food Service. Jobs in this category averaged $1,075 per month during this time period.

• Our strongest job growth was found in the Retail Trade sector with the addition of 1065 jobs. The pay for these jobs was mostly below the average for jobs in Fayette County.

• Two sectors where we lost jobs were Construction (lost 66 jobs) and Manufacturing (lost 343 jobs). These sectors happen to also consist of a combined 17% of our total local employment base.

Overall, we added more jobs than we lost, for a net gain of 2404 jobs from 2005 to 2007. If you look at the chart in detail though, you’ll see that many sectors are clustered around the intersection of average salary and zero growth.

Between 2007 and Q2 2008, Fayette County lost 43 of the highest paying sector jobs and still gained 152 of the five lowest paying sector jobs.

The below chart again illustrates this trend.

From Wage Data

Some key insights to point out include:

• Federal Government is still our highest paying sector during this time period, but job growth is now nearly zero, with only nine new jobs.

• Our lowest paying sector is now Arts and Recreation. Jobs in this category averaged $1,040 per month, though Accomodations/Food Service is barely ahead of it with an average monthly salary of $1,083.

• Our strongest job growth was found primarily in the Health/Social Services category, the Local Government category and the Accomodations/Food Service category. The collective number of jobs created in these sectors was 589 positions. The pay, however, was mostly at or below the average for jobs in Fayette County.

• What was once the fastest growing segment, has now lost the most number of jobs. Retail lost 448 positions during this time period. It’s also our largest employment sector with 16% of our jobs. Construction and Manufacturing are still losing jobs with a combined 523 jobs lost. These three sectors alone account for 971 lost jobs.

Overall, we lost more jobs than we gained, for a net loss of 165 jobs from 2007 to 2Q 2008.

The most damning news of all is to consider that most of this negative news occurred before the financial crisis and economic meltdown of 2008.

Tagged: quality jobs analysis, 2nd quarter 2008, fayette county