Economics

Ever pass by the Washington Road/Warren Road area with a Jordan Trotter SOLD sign and wonder, “What’s going in there?” The Jim Hudson Automotive Group owns the multi-acre property and is doing some land clearing and cleanup. ABD has learned there are no immediate plans to develop a new dealership. In the last few years, Jim Hudson’s team has added Acura and Cadillac brands to go with its signature Lexus dealership. The above property is located directly next to Eye Care One and across from the Goodwill of Middle Georgia

According to Review Trackers.com, Google is still the top review site. More users than ever are reading Google Reviews directly. These reviews are a great way for potential customers to find out what the company is about and decide if they want to take that next step to partner with that company. Obtaining those reviews can be difficult, but for one local insurance company, they have figured out the key to success. “Hitting 200 Google reviews for any business is a big deal and we are so excited to be

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