By When Amazon (AMZN) announced its expansion into Nashville, including a new headquarters there, the move marked the single largest jobs commitment made by a company in Tennessee’s history.
The data shows the tech giant’s arrival has made a difference in the economy too.
“Like any economist, I was skeptical before I saw the results,” said Vikram Pathania, one of Amazon’s principal economists. “You see employment go up, you see income go up, and you see these indicators move positively.”
In 2023, Amazon’s investments contributed $4 billion to Tennessee’s gross domestic product and supported 15,000 indirect jobs, according to data provided by the company. Additional findings show that when the company moves into a county, that county can expect its employment-to-population ratio to increase by 1.7% on average.
The company touted that for every 10 jobs that it created directly, nine additional jobs were indirectly created as well.
“The very act of building a new warehouse means hiring local construction companies, and so sometimes you start to notice the effects by year one, definitely by year two. And by year three, the numbers are coming through,” Pathania said. “But there’s also an indirect channel because we are employing people and putting wages in their pockets. Those people are then going and spending that money at local businesses.”
“Cloud computing is a big investment for us, particularly with artificial intelligence,” Sullivan said.
