TIFTON — With Tift County unemployment at 7.8 percent in September and expected to be 9 or 10 percent this month and next, membership at the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce is increasing.

“Chamber membership is up 20 percent this year, which is amazing,” said COC President and CEO Brad Day.

Day said some counties are seeing a 10 percent drop of COC membership.

“Businesses are realizing that they have to do more marketing,” Day said.

Day said the September unemployment figures don’t show the unemployment related to the recent COI and Fuji Film Processing closings here.

Day said the health care business is the only sector remaining somewhat stable during these tough economic times.

“Most all businesses, including non-profits, have been detrimentally affected by the economy,” Day said.

Tift County continues to be a hub for transportation, Day said, with a lot of tractor and truck dealers here. Freightliner is planning an expansion, which is good news, and Chili’s recent opening was a bright spot economically.

Tift County is part of a regional economy, Day said, and this region is reflective of the national economic scene.

“We are a hub for employment,” Day said. “Seventy percent of the employees of some firms here are from other counties.”

Over the past 12 months, 1,200 people from Tift county have been lost their jobs.

Those involved with economic development here work with others in the area through a Joint Development Authority.

“What’s good for one is good for everybody,” Day said.

One of the common misconceptions, Day said, is that all manufacturing jobs have gone to China.

“That’s not the case,” he said. “Toyota recently located a plant in northern Mississippi.”

Advanced Technology Manufacturing can provide high-paying jobs that provide good employee benefits. The key, Day said, is for people to be personally responsible for preparing themselves for those jobs.

“We have to take advantage of the HOPE grant and develop marketable skills,” Day said. “I market our work force and I have to confidently show that we have a skilled work force. That’s the first thing prospects ask me.”

Day said that members of the development authority are attending a University of Georgia training in Douglas soon to hone their economic development skills. Members will learn the role the Internet plays in marketing Tifton and Tift County to prospective businesses and best practices on dealing with those prospects as well as financing techniques. Other instruction will include how to structure economic development deals and information about development authority operations.

The COC is also working to make themselves more electronically savvy as 90 percent of all new business prospects look at the Internet first. Day said the development authority and Forward Tifton recently funded $13,000 each to “build an electronic presence” and market what Tifton has to offer online. The Chamber partners with other chambers in the state, with the Georgia Dept. of Economic Development, Georgia Power and Colquitt EMC to keep a data base of sites and buildings available up-to-date on the site.

The newly vamped Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce Web site will have a second component, an economic development section, in January.

“We want to use modern marketing to show Tifton to the world,” Day said.



To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.