BRACK: Small business is Gwinnett’s backbone of workforce

Via Unsplash

By Elliott Brack 
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum

NOV. 19, 2024  |  By now, most people in Gwinnett know that the county’s population totals more than 1 million people living within its borders. 

But here is another astounding figure: more than half of those people are employed. To be exact, as of September 2024, the labor force in Gwinnett County, Georgia was 517,604 people, with 501,577 employed. The unemployment rate in Gwinnett County was 3.1 percent, which is lower than the long term average of 4.52 percent!

For years, we kept up with the largest employers in Gwinnett. These days Partnership Gwinnett has those figures. Now look at which institutions are the biggest in providing jobs for the Gwinnett area: 

OPERATION ……………………. WORKERS

1. 1. Gwinnett Public Schools……… 23,000
   2. Northside Hospital    …………….4,650
   3. Gwinnett Government    ……….4,000
   4. Publix Dist. and Mfg.    …………2,800
   5. Georgia Gwinnett College     ….1,515
   6. Primerica     ………………………..1,500
   7. Piedmont Eastside Hospital  ..1,200
   8. WIKA                  ………………….. 807
   9. Price Industries       ………………700
   10. Boehringer Ingelheim       …….575

Note that the 10 biggest firms only employ 40, 747 people, less than 10 percent of the Gwinnett County workforce. 

• Now click on this link  from Partnership Gwinnett:
  

This shows that another 45 firms in Gwinnett have at least 260 employees.  That adds up to at least 11,250 workers, but most of those firms have between 260 and 500 employees. As a ball park number, if that totals to 20,000 employees, that still accounts for only about 12 percent of the total employed in the county.

Perhaps you see where we’re going: about 75 percent of those employed in Gwinnett work for the companies who are the backbone of our country’s stability: small businesses, that is, with firms with less than 250 employees.  And if we could pull up the statistics, we would suggest that 50 percent of the total workforce in Gwinnett is employed by companies with less than 100 workers.

Yes, that’s what makes the always-powerful Gwinnett economy so wonderful: thousands of people employed by small businesses. From the service world, to finance, retail trade, professional people and many, many diverse newcomers from all over the world, that’s what makes up the majority of companies providing work places in Gwinnett.

There is no single company, should it fall on bad times, could cause major problems for Gwinnett. And there is no single industry that might slowdown and cause major problems in the county.  

That’s why the Gwinnett economy continues to be so robust and has for so long.

That’s a mighty message that our county sends to neighboring communities and one that makes other parts of the country envious of what we have in Gwinnett.

Thank you, Mr. or Mrs. Small Business Owners. There is no doubt that you are the backbone of our county economy. 

Of course, it helps to have these major employers around. But most people get their livelihood from the much smaller companies. 

Now you know.

• Have a comment?  Send to: Click here to send an email