Skip to main content

New Study Shows Georgia's Public Universities Contribute $21.9 Billion to State's Economy

The public universities comprising the University System of Georgia (USG) contributed a total of $21.9 billion to Georgia’s economy between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, a $1.8 billion or 9% increase over the previous year, a new study shows. Conducted on behalf of USG by Jeffrey M. Humphreys, Director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth in the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, the study also showed USG over the same period generated 163,332 full- and part-time jobs across Georgia. Concurrently, Humphreys in a companion study found that USG bachelor’s graduates from the Class of 2023 will earn $1.4 million more during their lifetimes than they would have without their college degree. “USG continues to be a million-dollar deal for our graduates, and we have the data to prove USG degrees will help them increase their prosperity and success,” USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. “At the same time, we are a billion-dollar deal for Georgia. Our 26 public colleges and universities make a significant economic impact by helping to put Georgians to work and sustaining local communities across the state.” The $21.9 billion total economic impact for Fiscal Year 2023, up from $20.1 billion in Fiscal Year 2022, included $14.6 billion in initial spending by students and by USG’s 26 institutions on personnel and operating expenses. The remaining $7.3 billion is the multiplier impact of those funds in a local community. Of the 163,332 jobs generated by USG institutions, approximately 32% of the positions are on-campus jobs and 68% are off-campus. The study found that for each job created by a USG institution on its campus, two additional jobs are created in the local community. Data also show USG and its institutions create about the same employment impact in the state as Georgia’s top five employers combined. In the companion study, findings show the breakdown of how much each level of higher education can add to a USG graduate’s total earnings over the course of their lives. They offer additional evidence about how earnings increase substantially with each step up in earned degree. On average, each credential generates additional earnings over a USG graduate’s lifetime by: 

Certificate: +$284,199
Associate degree: +$449,323
Bachelor’s degree: +$1,373,595
Master’s degree: +$1,667,979
Professional degree: +$2,583,312
Ph.D.: +$2,428,372

Based on work-life earnings estimates for Georgia, the analysis showed that the 72,037 USG graduates from the Class of 2023 can expect combined total lifetime earnings of $220 billion, which is $70 billion more than they could expect to earn had they not gone on to college or graduate school. The study shows graduates with at least a bachelor’s degree will earn $1.4 million more throughout their lives. In fact, high school graduates who obtain a bachelor’s degree will boost their work-life earnings in Georgia by 82%, exceeding the 80% increase estimated for the nation. The average increase in lifetime earnings fluctuates year-to-year for each graduating class depending on how many bachelor’s degrees are awarded compared to the other degree categories. If factoring in less-than-four-year degrees for the Class of 2023, the average amount of extra earnings is $911,459.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Seven Turner College Management and Marketing Faculty Have Combined to Produce Eight A-Level Journal Publications Between 2021 and the Present

A number of faculty in the Turner College's Department of Management and Marketing, which includes faculty in management information systems, have produced A-level journal publications in the last few years. This report covers that activity, starting with John Finley , the chairperson of the department. Professor Finley published a paper in the Journal of Computer Information Systems in 2022.      Finley is joined by Kirk Heriot , the Crowley Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship. Heriot, who earned a PhD in management from Clemson University, published in a 2021 issue of Small Business Economics . One of the study's co-authors, Andres Jauregui of Fresno State University, was previously a member of the Turner College's economics faculty.      Next is Johnny Ho , a professor of management, who has a 2022 publication in the Journal of Computer Information Systems . Ho has won CSU's Excellence in Research Award on multiple occasions, while he has compiled 2...
Post a Comment
Read more

TSYS School, Jianhua Yang, Lixin Wang Each among Top Five in the World

New research by computer scientists in the School of Information Technology at Universiti Utara Malaysia that ranks institutions and individuals on the basis of scholarship in the area of stepping-stone attacks heaps praise on the Turner College’s TSYS School of Computer Science and two of its faculty – Jianhua Yang and Lixin Wang .   The article, published in the April 2023 issue of the International Journal of Research in Engineering and Science , provides a bibliometric analysis of both publication and citation data from 2000 to September of 2022 related to research on stepping-stone intrusion.   Among several results, it reports that Columbus State University ranks second worldwide, trailing only the University of Houston, using total publications on the subject as the basis of comparison.   A number of other U.S. institutions appear in the top 10, including third-ranked North Carolina State University, fourth-ranked University of Illinois, sixth-ranked Iowa State U...
Post a Comment
Read more

New Butler Center Report Identifies Employment Gaps in the Columbus Area

Officials in the Turner College's Butler Center for Research and Economic Development recently put the finishing touches on an extensive report on trends in educational programs and occupations in the Columbus area. The report also includes data on business and technology trends.  According to Fady Mansour , Director of the Butler Center, there are several key takeaways from the report regarding 10 occupational gaps that currently exist in the Columbus area. First,  software development occupation exhibits the biggest labor shortage, with the report adding that the TSYS School has a bachelor's degree program in information technology along with a new AI track for the bachelor's degree in computer science, both of which can qualify students for this occupation. Other educational programs are in demand, such as computer programming and cloud computing. Second, there is a gap of 30 employees per year in general and operations management. This gap could be addressed by the Turn...
Post a Comment
Read more