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17 11 Georgia's ideal geographic location makes Georgia a good hub from which to serve operations in the Americas. In addition, access to talent and the strength of the business community are important drivers of headquarters locations in the Atlanta MSA. According to FEMA, Georgia has a minimal risk for business disruption due to natural disasters, which we believe will be an increasingly important consideration for headquarters locations. Thirty-three companies with headquarters in metro Atlanta rank among the 2024 Fortune 1,000 and sixteen rank among the Fortune 500. NCR Atleos, Chart Industries, and Mativ Holdings were added to the list in 2024. Prior to the pandemic (2019), metro Atlanta was home to 26 Fortune 1000 companies. The outlook for Georgia's large healthcare industry is good. We expect the number of healthcare jobs in Georgia to increase in 2025. Due to the essential need for healthcare and favorable demographic trends, the prospects for providers of ambulatory health care are particularly good. In 2025, we expect providers of nursing and residential care to benefit from an upturn in business that will lead to higher employment, but family members will continue to provide more care to aged and ill relatives at home than prior to the pandemic. On a more optimistic note, the recent runup in home prices gives a higher proportion of homeowners who want to move into nursing and residential care facilities the means to do so. The bottom line is that Georgia's growing, aging population will demand more healthcare services, which broadens the industry's economic growth to include lagging subsectors – nursing facilities, residential care facilities, and hospitals. Large numbers of baby boomers are reaching the age where the incidence of heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and other care-intensive problems begin to rise rapidly. The population of persons with multiple chronic health conditions that require ongoing healthcare continues to grow regardless of the vicissitudes of the business cycle or healthcare policy. Of course, there's intractable disagreement about who will pay the bills, which is a headwind for the healthcare industry's growth. In 2025, Georgia technology industries will find it slightly easier and slightly less expensive to obtain funding compared to 2024, but harder and more expensive compared to a few years ago. Therefore, we expect Georgia technology industry to see faster growth in 2025 than in 2024, but slower growth than in 2021-23. Several factors will encourage providers of high-tech and highly specialized professional services to favor sites in Georgia – especially the Atlanta MSA, including the good business climate, logistical advantages in terms of serving far-flung clients, the available professional workforce, and a large annual output of newly minted college graduates. Many changes created by the COVID-19 pandemic will generate business for providers of professional services and consultants. For example, the accelerated adoption of high-tech trends generates businesses for providers of high-tech services. Similarly, recent increases in regulations at all levels of government generate business for consultants. Providers of business services that either lower costs or provide necessities should do well. Activity in Georgia's transportation and logistics industry is notoriously cyclical, but barring labor disputes we expect the industry's growth to accelerate in 2025. Georgia's transportation and logistics industry will expand and outperform that of the nation. One state-specific factor behind our sanguine forecast for Georgia's transportation and logistics industry is the abundance of logistics and distribution projects in Georgia's economic development pipeline. Similarly, the build out of recent economic development projects involving the relocation and expansion of manufacturers bodes well for the performance of Georgia's transportation and logistics industry. Additional state-specific drivers include the outstanding performance of the Port of Savannah and the Port of Brunswick. Improvements in the state's transportation infrastructure will expand the Georgia's importance as a regional and nation logistics and distribution center. Above-average population growth also will benefit Georgia's transportation and logistics industry. The accelerated shift from physical retail to online retail benefitted Georgia's distribution and logistics industry in 2020-24 and will continue to do so, but the ongoing shift in households' spending priorities from goods to services will be a headwind. In 2025, we expect cargo volumes will outpace US-GDP growth. That will be quite an accomplishment for an industry that typically moves in lockstep with the overall economy. The 2018 opening of the Appalachian Regional Port is helping the Port of Savannah tap into new markets and helps economic developers bring more projects to Georgia. In early 2026, the Georgia Port Authority will open a second inland container port – Blue Ridge Connector – near I-985 in Gainesville. The inland port will accept