Nearly One-Third of Cobb Jobs Pay Big: Study

Cobb County holds more than seven percent of all jobs in Georgia, with 31 percent of them being high-paying, “premium” jobs, according to a new study released by Georgia State University in Atlanta.

The study, released by the Fiscal Research Center of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, offers maps, tables, and information about the distribution in number and pay of jobs in Georgia.

Using the latest establishment-level data reported in the Georgia Department of Labor’s Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, each policy brief provides information on the distribution, type and quality of jobs (weighted as premium, mid-range and low-paying) for every county and municipality in Georgia, and shows their total employment as a percent of the state total. FRC Research Associate Zackary Hawley authored the series.

“We hope this information will be useful to Georgia’s cities and counties as an economic development and planning tool,” says FRC Director Sally Wallace. “In the very simple tables we’ve provided, it’s fairly easy to see not only the industries that constitute major employers within each county and municipality, but also, in a general way, what these industry concentrations mean by way of the quality of jobs they provide.”

Not surprisingly, Fulton County has the highest percentage of jobs in Georgia, with 14.83 percent. Cobb County is in second place, with 7.19 percent. Chatham County is a distant third, containing 2.74 percent of state jobs. The city of Marietta contains 1.42 percent of all jobs in Georgia, and 18.1 percent of all Cobb County Jobs.

The second segment of this study delves into the distribution of high-paying to low-paying jobs by county. Jobs are divided into high-paying (or “premium”), mid-range, and low-paying categories.

Cobb County's economic splits are fairly even. Premium jobs make up 31 percent of the Cobb workforce, while mid-range and low-paying jobs total at 33 and 36 percent, respectively.

Half of Marietta's jobs are mid-range, with 24 and 25 percent premium and low-paying, respectively.

State totals for income distribution are 23 percent premium, 44 percent mid-range and 33 percent low-paying jobs.

Copies of the briefs may be downloaded here.