Savannah GA Business News

The Georgia Ports Authority's Garden City Terminal — the largest single container terminal in the Western Hemisphere — anchors Savannah's economy, handling 5.7 million TEUs in FY2025. Unemployment ran at 3.4% through 2025-05, against a state rate of 3.6%. Georgia is a right-to-work state.

What anchors the Savannah economy

• Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation.
• Georgia Ports Authority.
• Savannah-Chatham County Public School System.
• St. Joseph's/Candler Health System.

Beyond the headlines

The economy reaches into Aerospace Manufacturing, Healthcare, Tourism / Hospitality, and Higher Education. Savannah is corporate home to JCB North America Inc. (North American HQ). The single largest taxpayer in the county is Georgia Ports Authority / Gulfstream Aerospace (among largest private taxpayers).

Trade & infrastructure

• Appalachian Regional Port (Chatsworth, GA).
• Central Georgia Railpark (Cordele, GA).
• Garden City Terminal (seaport).
• Ocean Terminal (seaport).
• Foreign-Trade Zone 104 — federal duty-deferral zone for manufacturers and distributors here.
• Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (3,200,000 passengers/yr).

Talent pipeline

Workforce flows out of Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Savannah State University, Georgia Southern University – Armstrong Campus, and Savannah Technical College — feeding the engineering, healthcare, finance, and skilled-trade jobs that Savannah employers fill every year.

How HERESavannah covers it

We track every layer of the Savannah economy: corporate relocations, retail openings, restaurant launches, workforce trends, commercial real estate, supplier announcements, hospital and university capital projects, and the local, state, and federal government decisions that shape how businesses here grow. If it affects business in Chatham County, it's HERE.