Economic Development Commission talks inflation, jobs in South Ga.

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - Recently, inflation has affected most households across the nation.

WALB’s Jim Wallace talked to Jana Dyke, the President of the Albany-Dougherty County Economic Development Commission on Wednesday regarding the current state of inflation.

“With Inflation now being felt by most Georgians, what do we see in economic development, especially jobs?” asked Wallace.

“As a result of inflation, our employers have seen their employees return back to work at this junction. And the workforce that is still out there that’s available to come back. They are evaluating how can we incentivize these employees to come back and return to work,” said Dyke. “A lot of that is increased cost, our increased wages, increased incentives, and benefits. What do communities have to offer for people who are not cooking to return to work full time? Looking at part-time. How can we incentivize them to move to our communities and go back to work?”

“What do you see right now about industries and businesses that are moving around? Are you seeing a lot of growth in South Georgia?” Wallace asked.

“We are. Georgia as a whole has continued to see growth. And for us, most of our growth in Albany and Dougherty County in the last year has been local growth. Those are our existing businesses, which are really our bread and butter for all communities. Because they are already here. They are invested in our community. We know that they are here to support the different initiatives that take place. And so throughout the last year, we’ve really tried to just build that kind of relationship with our existing businesses. The large and the small businesses. How can we help? How can we help bridge that gap, and show what everybody is doing? There are a lot of things that are happening in our community, that a lot of people are not aware of,” Dyke replied.

“If people are thinking of returning to work right now, jobs are available?”

“Oh definitely. We hear every day there are jobs available. Beginning at the entry-level and going up to administration. We recently held a job fair, last quarter we had a job fair. And we had 700 people come through the doors of that event. And Procter & Gamble filled a large portion of the jobs that they had. However, they continue to onboard constantly. The jobs are there and I think the people are there. We just to find out how can we connect them. That’s key,” said Dyke.

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