Industry Spotlight PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

The professional services sector accounts for nearly 12,000 business establishments in Georgia and includes jobs in:

• Accounting

• Tax Preparation

• Bookkeeping

• Advertising

• Public Relations

• Legal Services

Within this sector, legal services account for the most businesses, with more than 6,000 businesses in the legal field in Georgia.1 Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services come in second within the sector for number of establishments, accounting for 4,500 businesses in Georgia, combined.1 Advertising and public relations jobs rank third, with 1,180 establishments around the state.1

Payroll for professional services has seen substantial growth. From 2018-2020 payroll increased by 13.2 percent, which equates to just over $3 billion.1 The number of employees, however, has seen a slower growth rate of just 7.8 percent over the same time period.1 This finding signifies employers are absorbing job duties among current staff, allowing them to use a smaller number of employees and pay them a higher rate.

From 2018-2020, employee growth in legal services, accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll has remained relatively constant, with only small incremental growth. Comparatively, advertising and public relations related services, have displayed rapid employment growth in the past few years, with a 53.3 percent increase from 20182019, but as of 2020 has started to plateau.1

Small businesses with five or less employees account for 66 percent of businesses within the professional services sector in the state.1 This could indicate that much of the work in these industries can be done with a small number of employees, or independently as sole proprietors with contract work.

Much of the growth in this sector can be attributed to the growth of the digital age, with the number of internet users doubling in the past 10 years.2 The growing digital world opened a new platform for businesses to advertise. In addition, the pandemic pushed even more businesses to go digital in order to keep their businesses open while social distancing. As a result, the dollars spent on social media ads in Georgia has quadrupled since 2017.2

Doing business online is a trend from the pandemic that will stay, leading to continued growth of the digital advertising sector. Digital ads have taken over more traditional forms of advertising - including print