According to a new industry report released by the Center for Global Health Innovation (The Center) and TEConomy Partners, a global leader in research and analysis, Georgia’s life sciences industry has experienced strong and steady employment growth in recent years, outpacing even the rapidly growing national industry in its private sector industrial components and exceeding 78,000 total jobs in 2021.

The report, which examines the growth and trends in our sector over the last five years, shows that since 2015, life sciences’ employment growth has surpassed Georgia’s overall private sector growth by more than two times, reinforcing the industry’s role as an important targeted cluster for state economic development, and its critical role as an economic and innovation engine for Georgia.

Key findings from the industry economic and impact analyses include the following:

The life sciences are a major economic and innovation engine for Georgia.
Since 2015, life sciences’ employment growth has outpaced Georgia’s overall private sector growth by more than two times (20% job growth for life sciences industry vs. 9% for Georgia’s private sector), reinforcing the industry’s role as an important targeted cluster for state economic development, and its critical role as an economic and innovation engine for Georgia.
Growth has been especially strong in the “industrial” life sciences segment which has increased employment by 29% since 2015 and outpaced the nation (23%).
Life sciences workers earn nearly $93,000 annually on average, or nearly $30,000 more than the private sector average for Georgia.
The industry’s large footprint – 78,000 direct jobs across 4,000 establishments – plus its strong growth and its high wage premium all translate into major impacts for Georgia’s economy, generating:
Nearly 215,000 total jobs across the state economy
$50 billion in total economic impact
The innovation ecosystem for life sciences in Georgia is making gains and generating substantial levels of activity, some highlights include:
Reaching a new peak in VC and Angel investment funding in 2021 that totaled $530M to Georgia life sciences companies – a more than 3X increase from average levels seen in the prior 6 years.
Georgia’s research universities represent a major asset in life sciences R&D, innovation – after growth of 36% since 2015, outpacing US growth, combined to perform $1.4 billion in life sciences R&D in 2020 alone.
Further, the ecosystem/industry is generating:
583 life science-related patents in 2021
Initiated 718 clinical trials in 2021
Awarded $744M in NIH funding in 2021
“The high potential for the life sciences industry to enhance both the economic and physical wellbeing of all Georgians is a top reason the Center and Georgia Bio work hard to ensure the state’s educators and career development professionals can access the resources they need to ensure our workforce meets the needs of the fast growing, care-focused, high paying industry,” said Maria Thacker-Goethe, CEO of the Center.

The full 2022 Georgia Life Sciences State of the Industry Report is now fully public and can be viewed at GABIO.org. The state of the industry report is supported by funding from the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), Georgia Department of Economic Development, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Innovation Crescent, Johnson & Johnson, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber.

This new Georgia report comes a week after, a new national report released by BIO and CSBA with TEConomy finds the U.S. biotech industry is a major economic driver in all 50 states and explores why investment is booming. That full report can be viewed at BIO.org.