Metro Atlanta’s Job Market Is Splitting as Health Care Grows and Office Sectors Retreat
Health care and education jobs are rising strongly in metro Atlanta, while professional services, finance, and construction sectors face declines. The region’s job market is showing uneven trends through mid-2026.
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North Atlanta is entering the fall hiring season with a divided job market: health care and education continue to expand, while several industries supporting the region’s corporate corridors have fewer jobs than a year ago.
The latest Atlanta-area employment figures place metro payroll employment at 3.107 million jobs in July, down 0.1% from July 2025. The region also lost 17,800 jobs from June, although that monthly figure is not adjusted for predictable seasonal changes such as the summer reduction in school employment.
The more consequential shift is between industries. Education and health services employed 476,700 people across metro Atlanta in July, an increase of 4% over the year. It was the region’s strongest major sector by a wide margin.
That growth supports a large North Atlanta employment network that includes Northside Hospital’s campuses in Forsyth and Gwinnett, Emory Johns Creek Hospital, private medical practices, senior-care providers and the Fulton, Forsyth and Gwinnett school systems.
Several office-heavy sectors moved in the other direction. Professional and business services employment declined 1.4% over the year, while financial activities fell 0.7%. Those categories include many of the consulting, technology-support, accounting, insurance, corporate-management and business-service jobs concentrated around Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Roswell and Peachtree Corners.
Construction employment was down 1.6%, despite continued development across North Fulton, Forsyth and Gwinnett. Manufacturing declined 0.6%, and trade, transportation and utilities fell 0.7%.
Information employment provided one exception, rising 1.2% over the year. That category includes data processing, telecommunications, publishing and related work, but it represents only part of North Atlanta’s broader technology economy. Many software and technology-service positions are counted under professional and business services instead.
The local figures arrived alongside a more encouraging national employment report. U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in August, well above the 31,000 monthly average recorded during the previous year. Unemployment remained at 4.1%.
Restaurants and bars added 59,000 jobs nationally, local-government education gained 42,000 and manufacturing added 16,000. Health care continued growing, although its 13,000-job increase was weaker than its recent monthly average. Information companies cut 23,000 jobs.
The national improvement may eventually appear in Atlanta’s figures, which lag by a month. For now, the regional numbers help explain why two North Atlanta residents can experience the same economy very differently.
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