Fed report: Rome firms’ output up slightly in 2015
A GHC professor says growth in Rome is “in line” with the rest of the nation.
A GHC professor says growth in Rome is “in line” with the rest of the nation.
A new report from the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis shows Rome companies produced an inflation-adjusted $3.256 billion dollars of goods and services in 2015 — up 1.9 percent from $3.195 billion in 2014.
Bruce Jones, professor of economics at Georgia Highlands College, said Rome’s growth is nearly in line with the national growth data. The nation’s 382 metropolitan areas grew at a combined 2.5 percent in 2015.
“Right now the country as a whole is not growing terribly fast,” Jones said. “We’re growing slowly but at least we’re not all over the place.
“One of the things we teach in economics is that it would be nice if we could smooth the business cycle a little bit. We love having the huge peaks but we don’t like the drips either.”
If there was ever any doubt that Atlanta is the engine that drives Georgia, consider the fact that Atlanta’s gross domestic product, the output of goods and service, is three times higher than the other 13 other metropolitan statistical areas in Georgia combined.
The GDP in the metro Atlanta market was roughly $303 billion. The other metropolitan areas of Albany, Athens, Brunswick, Columbus, Dalton, Gainesville, Hinesville, Macon, Rome, Savannah, Valdosta and Warner Robins totaled over $99 billion.
Albany, Dalton, Hinesville and Warner Robins all reported some shrinkage of output in 2015.
Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce President Al Hodge said the 1.9 percent growth is positive news that validates the need and importance for the right kind of growth. Bruce Jones Al Hodge
Kiwiana Davis runs some of the machinery at Suhner Manufacturing, which experienced tremendous growth in 2015 and is growing at an even faster rate this year. The company is planning an expansion in 2017. Entertainment, recreation and tourism expenditures were one of the leading factors in the modest 1.9 percent growth of the gross domestic product for
“Candidly, we always want it to be more and faster and higher as long as it’s the right quality growth,” Hodge said.
Guido Broder, CEO at Suhner Manufacturing Inc., 43 Anderson Road, said his company’s sales expanded by 19 to 21 percent from 2014 to 2015.
“We planted the seeds a couple years back and now we’re starting to harvest that stuff,” Broder said.
Doug Walker / Rome News-Tribune Floyd County in 2015. Rome tourism leaders believe completion of the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College will continue to spur growth in 2016.
He said growth has been steady across all four of the units under the Suhner banner, all based out of the Rome plant.
David Newby, division president at Profile Custom Extrusion, 100 Anderson Road, said 2015 was a great year for his Guido Broder
firm as well. Newby said Profile added about 40 employees in 2015 and is getting close to reaching production capacity.
“People said we’d never get back to pre-recessionary levels,” Newby said. “We are 50 percent beyond our best year before the recession.”
Newby said he has already started talks with the board of directors about options for future growth. Doug Walker / Rome News-Tribune
In Rome and Floyd County, the leading sectors that fueled growth in 2015 included the natural resources and mining sector, entertainment and recreation and professional and business services, each of which accounted for 0.33 percent of the overall increase.
Jones took note of the contribution of the professional and business services sector, which includes management consultants, accountants, and legal services.
“One of the things that says to me is that the march toward becoming more of a service economy and less of a goods economy is continuing,” he said. “We’re making less and less goods but we’re performing more and more services.”
Jones used athletic shoes as an example. He said Americans don’t make this shoe or that shoe but do design them. “We come up with new materials and develop new ways to market them, which is really where the money is. The people in those professions are making a whole lot more money than the people who are sewing shoes,” Jones said.
Lisa Smith, executive director of the Greater Rome Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the city has done a good job over the last several years of growing its tourism product.
GROWTH