B2B Stories

Last week, CNBC released the 2023 edition of its annual “America’s Top States for Business.” As Georgians, we should be proud that our state ranked fourth, behind only North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee (South Carolinians, you are a respectable #27). CNBC’s methodology utilizes a variety of quantitative measures to evaluate each state in the following areas:  Workforce; Infrastructure; Economy; Life, Health, & Inclusion; Cost of Doing Business; Technology and Innovation; Business Friendliness; Education; Access to Capital; and Cost of Living. Georgia particularly distinguishes itself in Infrastructure (#1 in the country

The labor market nationally seems to be softening. On July 6th, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the number of job openings decreased to 9.8 million on the last day of May. Job openings have been declining since May 2022 (see graph below). The next day, the BLS announced that payroll employment increased by 209,000 in June, however, this is a slowdown on previous months. Locally, after four months of declining payroll employment, we have seen employment increase over the last two months. Employment has increased from 241,600