With a full-time workforce of nearly 19,000, Emory is the third-largest employer in metro Atlanta, behind Delta Air Lines and BellSouth. Emory consistently has been the largest employer in DeKalb County, and the University’s payroll and benefits in 1999 totaled $904.6 million. More than 1,400 construction workers owed their jobs in 1999 to Emory projects that included a vaccine research center, a nursing school, and a medical research building.

Spending by the University, its faculty, students, visitors, and retirees generates another 26,447 jobs for local businesses. In fact, for every direct Emory employee, there is at least one other Atlantan putting dinner on the table with salary dollars that started at Emory. That indirect employment figure means more than 45,000 Atlanta workers depend on Emory directly and indirectly for employment. That figure is roughly equal to a city the size of Valdosta, Georgia. Another way to think of it: of the 2.2 million jobs in Atlanta, Emory has created one out of every fifty.

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