France’s Key Role as a Job Creator in Georgia Stays Constant

France remains a consistent investment partner for Georgia, ranking No. 5 among countries for jobs created in the state.

Often overshadowed by other source nations including Germany, Japan and, in recent years, South Korea, France’s impact on the state economy has quietly stayed strong, according to an annual report released by the French Embassy in the United States.

With 27,100 jobs created by French firms, the nation accounted for 9.6 percent of jobs created by foreign investment in state, according to the 2024 Economic Report on France-U.S. engagement.

Those figures are up from 24,500 jobs and 8.8 percent proportionally in 2023, at which point the number of French-created jobs in Georgia had increased by 46.7 percent in the preceding decade.

In 2024, that growth metric jumped to 68 percent.

On the trade front, total trade was down slightly to $3.6 billion, with more than $3 billion of that coming in the form of imports from France, led by transportation equipment, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and electronics.

Georgia exported $596 million in goods to France, also led by transportation equipment along with chemicals and machinery. Those three categories combined for more than two-thirds of Georgia’s exports to the country.

In both 2023 and 2024, the French government highlighted the warehouse robotics company Exotec as an investor “success story.” The unicorn company, valued at more than $2 billion after a big capital raise in early 2022, has grown in North America via an Atlanta headquarters that employs 50 people with plans to double that headcount by 2025.

In the decade leading up to 2023, trade between Georgia and France grew by 81 percent.

At the national level, the countries posted record trade of $153 billion in good and services in 2023. French-affiliated companies, meanwhile, tend to an investment stock of $360 billion in the United States, leading to 741,000 American jobs, with nearly 30 percent of them being in the manufacturing sector.

“Our common heritage and values, such as democracy, freedom, entrepreneurship and fair trade have demonstrated their strength and resilience,” wrote Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire in the report. “This report demonstrates how the United States and France can leverage an exceptional transatlantic partnership to tackle common challenges, drawing from our robust and longstanding alliance.”

Some of those themes will be explored in the upcoming France-Atlanta series of events run by the consulate in partnership Georgia Tech.

The economic impact report is produced by the Directorate General of the Treasury in France’s Ministry of the Economy and Finance.

See the full report here (Georgia on page 56) or embedded below: