COVINGTON, Ga. - The Covington/Newton County Office of Economic Development (ED) launched its 2017 wage and benefits survey Friday. Every company that participates in the survey will have access to the data gathered from it completely free of charge.

The survey can be accessed through the ED website, www.selectnewton.com, or directly at www.selectnewtonsurvey.com.

The 2016 survey had 13 participating companies from Rockdale, Walton, Morgan, Gwinnett and Newton Counties. ED Senior Project Manager Serra Hall said she hopes to double that number with this year’s survey.

Hall said the 2017 has improved upon the 2016 survey and has become much more user-friendly.

 “We do this to service back our companies that are currently here and to work to perspective growth to understand our true region and growing with technology we have to continue updating ourselves and making sure that we continue to grow,” Hall said.

While the survey is geared towards industrial and manufacturing jobs, it is open to any business.

“If we want to lead the nation in economic development, we are going to have the best of anything we can do and this is the best wage and benefit survey that is out there,” Vice President of ED David Bernd said. “Do it right the first time.”

Hall said the survey will be open for about a month and the data will be available for participants by either the end of 2017 or beginning of 2018. Non-participants will have the ability to purchase the data from ED once it is available.