Local Economy Expected to Lag State and Nation in 2025

Columbus State University recently hosted the Georgia 2025 Economic Outlook event on January 30, where academic leaders and researchers provided statewide and local economic forecasts. According to Jordyn Paul-Slater's report on the event for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Columbus isn’t on track to match statewide economic growth. As Paul-Slater reports, Benjamin Ayers, Dean of the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, delivered the statewide forecast, and Deborah Kidder, Dean of the Turner College of Business at CSU, provided the forecast for the Columbus region. Current forecasts predict that Georgia's economy will exceed the national economy in 2025. “We do expect Georgia’s economy to grow faster than the U.S. economy in 2025 and beyond,” Ayers said. “One advantage that we have as a state is our economic development prowess. Other advantages include a variable mix of industries, supportive demographic trends, with more and more people moving to our state.” As for Columbus' economy, unemployment rates, population decline and inflation risk are factors stunting local economic growth this year, according to CSU’s Butler Center for Research and Economic Development, which is headed by Turner College economist Fady Mansour. According to Mansour's work, Columbus historically has faced higher unemployment rates compared Georgia and the U.S., and this trend is expected to continue into next year. Unemployment rates in Columbus are expected to be between 4.5% and 4.8% due to inflation expectations, elevated interest rates and labor market conditions, among other reasons. Kidder told the Ledger-Enquirer that Columbus is often overlooked for new economic development. “Everything, for example, like fintech is in Atlanta. Companies go there because everybody’s there,” Kidder said. “We need the same. We need someone to start. And then, that company brings in a supply-chain company, and it grows and multiplies.” Kidder also emphasized that these forecasts are not definitive measures of the future.

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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...

ABDC Releases 2025 Journal Review, Now Ranks Journal Edited by Phil Bryant

The long-awaited journal review being conducted by the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) has been released and there are a number of news items that relate to faculty in the Turner College. One of these is the ABDC's decision to now include Compensation and Benefits Review in its journal rankings. This is big news for the Turner College as its editor, Phil Bryant , is a professor of management in the Turner College. The ABDC is proposing that the journal enter its system for the first time as a C-rated journal. Acting Turner College Dean Tesa Leonce sits on the journal's editorial board, while Turner College management professor Mark James has guest-edited an issue of the journal. Published by SAGE, Compensation & Benefits Review is the leading journal for senior executives and professionals who design, implement, evaluate and communicate compensation and benefits policies and programs. The journal supports compensation and benefits specialists and academic ex...

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...

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