Growth in the Savannah metro economy remains positive but has slowed through the first half of the year, according to Georgia Southern University’s latest Economic Monitor.
“In general, the forward momentum of the regional economy continued through the second quarter of 2022, but at a slower pace,” said Michael Toma, Georgia Southern’s Fuller E. Callaway professor of economics.
Georgia Southern’s Economic Monitor measures the current economic heartbeat of the region and provides quarterly snapshots of the regional economy, including Bryan, Chatham and Effingham counties in Georgia.
According to the monitor, the business index for the Savannah metro economy increased one percent in the second quarter. The index of current economic activity increased to 210.9 from 208.8.
“While employment growth and port activity supported the regional economy during the second quarter, other major indicators of the Savannah metro economy, including those related to tourism and electricity sales to residential, industrial and commercial users, eased modestly,” said Toma.
Retail trade activity slowed substantially, while seasonal electricity sales and hotel room rentals eased by 0.5% as compared to the previous quarter. This represents a role reversal from the previous quarter, when tourism and electricity sales headlined regional economic strength while port activity moderated.
Employment trends
Approximately 1,100 jobs came online in the second quarter, bringing the regional employment to 198,700. This is an increase of 5.6% over last year's employment rate and 3.7% higher than the pre-pandemic peak in early 2020.
Employment variations in different sectors compared to one year ago, include:
- Business and professional services - 11.4% increase
- Retail - 4.3% increase
- Tourism and hospitality - 10% increase
- Manufacturing - 4.5% increase
Total number of employees per sector:
- Logistics - 17,200 workers
- Government employment - 23,500 workers
- Manufacturing - 18,700 workers
- Construction - 8,500 jobs
Tightness in the regional labor market continues to spur substantial increases in private sector wages.
Through the first half of the year, wages were roughly 13% higher than in the previous year. Even after adjusting for inflation, hourly wages remained 5% higher, thus translating into increased purchasing power for consumers.
The seasonal and inflation-adjusted hourly wage increased to $25.94 from $25.88 in the previous quarter.
The length of the private sector workweek recovered from the previous quarter’s loss and is 33 hours in length but remains 2.2% shorter than one year ago.
Housing
Building permit data has been highly volatile since the pandemic began. Permit issuance for residential homes is down 9% over the year. The number of permits issued decreased to 528 from 651 homes in the previous quarter.
The seasonally adjusted number of single-family homes permitted for construction plunged 19%.
The average valuation per single-family unit increased 9.3% to $282,700 from $259,000.
According to Toma, the Savannah metro economy is expected to grow through the remainder of 2022 at a slowing pace, but 2023 is subject to more economic uncertainty due to “a more challenging national macro-economic environment, with inflation and additional tightening of monetary policy, and continued constraints in global supply chains and disturbances in energy markets,” he said.
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