Posted on September 8, 2026
By Marlon Hyde
Georgia’s ports were involved in $181 billion in economic activity in the last fiscal year, according to a study from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.
The report concludes that port activity supports more than 600,000 jobs in the state.
Tom Smith, an economist at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, warns to be wary of these numbers, as they are based on assumptions about which jobs are related to port activity.
“You say, this is a number of container ships that come in over the course of a quarter. So we can estimate this is the number that come in over the course of the year. This is, broadly, the number of people working in this area,” said Smith.
And that things can change quickly because of tariffs.
“Is that going to impact the number of people who are needed to unload those containers, move those containers around, the number of people who’re going to be involved in transportation, shipping those containers across the country? Yes,” the economist said.
Despite disruptions from ever-changing tariff policies, Georgia’s two main ports boosted the local economy by 4% in fiscal year 2025, up from the previous year.
Smith says jobs that are supported by the port could include a wide array of positions. Anywhere from truck drivers who haul the cargo around to yard operators and the supply chain that’s using whatever was shipped.
“Every shipment through Savannah and Brunswick fuels Georgia’s economy, supporting businesses, families and communities,” added Griff Lynch, CEO of the Georgia Ports Authority.
Since fiscal year 2025, the study shows that employment supported by port activity has increased by almost 45,000 jobs.
“Twelve percent of statewide employment, or almost one out of every eight Georgia jobs, is in some way dependent on the ports,” said Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia’s Terry School of Business.
Georgia Ports is currently adding five container berths in Savannah and one berth for Roll-on/Roll-off cargo in Brunswick as it undergoes a $5 billion port and inland infrastructure plan.
