Economics

After hitting a record high in March 2024, employment in the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) fell to 246,500 in April. This represents just a 0.04 percent decrease and could be described as a rounding error. Not surprisingly, given the small change in overall employment, many sectors saw no change in employment levels, including, financial activities, government, professional and business services, transportation and utilities, and wholesale trade. The big mover and shaker was education and health services, with employment increasing by 665 in this sector. While it took until last

Staff at Augusta Regional Airport are tallying up the numbers following the 2024 Masters Tournament. Across the board, most are higher than for the 2023 tournament. Looking first at the number of flights, the airport traffic peaked on Friday with 645 flights. That compared to 544 in 2023, but still below the 684 the airport logged in 2022. In fact, although numbers were higher for most categories, 2024 is still overshadowed by the 2022 tournament visitors. “All our performance indicators were behind 2022. But keep in mind that 2022 was

The Augusta Leading Economic Index (LEI) increased 0.3 percent in March from February. It is 1.6 percent higher than March 2023. The two components that contributed positively to the gain were residential building permits (up 8.8 percent) and initial claims for unemployment insurance (down 28 percent). Residential building permits have generally been on an upward trend since the financial crisis of 2008 and reflect a growing population from 535,000 in 2008 to 629,000 in 2023. Although initial claims for unemployment insurance fell, job openings also fell for the sixth consecutive

Over the last couple of weeks, I have reported that Augusta employment has surpassed pre-COVID levels, but the overall labor market is still suffering from long COVID. What about other areas of the state of Georgia? Employment in Georgia stands over a quarter of a million jobs higher in March 2024 than it did in February 2020. Three metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) generated over three-quarters of the job growth, Atlanta, Savannah, and Gainesville. Atlanta itself accounted for two-thirds of the job growth indicating the role the capital city pays in