Macon named in top thirty 'brokest cities' by Daily Beast

In an Oct. 31 news article, the Daily Beast, a news web site linked with Newsweek, named Macon along with three other Georgia cities among the poorest in the country.
In Oct. 2009, Forbes magazine named Macon as the seventh poorest metropolitan area in the United States.
These sort of findings were already in the public lexicon.
Despite an economy that is beginning to recover (the GDP was up 2.5 percent this summer), unemployment and debt are still very high.
The Daily Beast used unemployment rates, median household income, average personal debt and average credit score as part of what they used to rank cities. There were no justifications as to why the city was placed where they were on the list.
Macon came in at 14th on the list, behind Waco, Tx., but before Reno, Nevada.
The city was listed as having a 10.4 percent unemployment rate. Also, the median Macon household income was $37,507.
The average personal debt in Macon was calculated to be $23,775. The average credit score was 715, according to their scale.
The statistics were compiled using data from the credit bureau Experian and the Federal Bureau of labor statistics.
The other three cities in Georgia to make the list were Augusta, Savannah and Columbus. Savannah came in at number 25 and Augusta was 10th.
However, Columbus, Ga. was considered the brokest city in America.
This has been one of the most controversial news articles in Columbus history. Immediately following the publishing of the list, Columbus officials issued a press release in response to the list.
The Daily Beast even wrote “if this data is any indication, the cities struggling the most right now—the ones that may take the longest to recover—are clustered in the South and along the Pacific Coast.”
The data used were the most recent available statistics, such as August 2011 unemployment rates.