Economics

Everyone knows the name Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his lifelong devotion to the ministry, advocacy, and leadership. Just this week, he was honored with a federal holiday bearing his name. You might not be as familiar with Lessie Price, but she embodies many of the trailblazing traits that shaped the life of Dr. King. As he had a dream embraced by all of America, Price has contributed to fulfilling the dreams of many Aikenites. “I can’t adequately express how much this means to me as the first local

With almost weekly announcements of a new business coming to the state, it’s no surprise that Georgia is consistently ranked as one of the best states for business. WalletHub, a personal finance website, recently ranked Georgia as the sixth-best state to start a business in 2023. WalletHub ranked states in various categories and Georgia ranked in the top 10 in three of them – eighth in growth in number of small businesses, and 10th in cost of living and the average length of work week. The biggest drawback for the

As I reported last week, the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area had a strong jobs report for November with employment increasing by 1,300 jobs. Heading into the holiday season, it was no surprise to see that half the jobs were in the leisure and hospitality industry. Retail establishments also increased employment by 100 to a record high of 30,360. That equates to an additional 3,600 jobs from pre-pandemic levels. Professional and business services increased employment by 600 jobs, to a total of 34,250 in that sector. That is a post-pandemic peak,

As more companies and jobs come to Augusta, the need for affordable housing is now more important than ever, according to Janie Terrell Peel. Peel, Director of Sales and Commercial Leasing with Auben Realty, an Augusta-based investment real estate firm, was one of the panelists at a special event hosted for local large and medium-sized businesses, such as SME CPA’s, Augusta Industrial Services, and Azalea Investments, hosted by Augusta Business Daily yesterday. The other two panelists were Augusta Economic Development Authority President, Cal Wray, and ADP’s Augusta Division Vice President

In the first week of 2023, we now know how the Augusta economy did in 2021. The Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.1 percent. Real GDP is the final value of all goods and services produced in the economy in a year, adjusted for inflation. Some sectors of the economy enjoyed strong growth, admittedly from a covid-depleted 2020. For example, durable goods manufacturing was up 20 percent, and educational services by 11.1 percent. Not surprisingly, arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food services increased by

The major economic concern this year has been inflation. The latest data suggest that prices have risen by 7.1 percent over the last year. This has hit consumers’ pockets hard and at this time of the year made Christmas more expensive but by how much? A whimsical take on the cost of Christmas is provided by PNC bank which calculated the cost of the presents in the 12 days of Christmas. A partridge in a pear tree is 25.8 percent more expensive due to the higher cost of fertilizer. Higher

Christmas vacation is a great time to download a movie or pop in a DVD (or, if you’re really behind the times, a VHS tape) – especially this year, as the weather makes staying inside seem prudent. It’s also often a good time for movie producers to lure people to the theaters. Christmas movies are big business, both at the box office when they’re released and later as they’re shown ad infinitum on cable channels. There are a number of lists online of the top-grossing Christmas movies, all with varying

In the 1960s, both the Charlie Brown and the Grinch TV specials forewarned about the growing commercialization of Christmas. Despite their warnings, Christmas has become big business in the United States. Here are just a few facts about the business side of Christmas. • Christmas tree farms sell 25-30 million real trees each year – in 2018, it was 32 million, accounting for about $6.1 billion in sales. The states producing the most Christmas trees are Oregon, North Carolina and Michigan, but there are Christmas tree farms in every state.

In my annual economic forecast presentation a couple of weeks ago, I looked forward to 2023, which I covered in this column last week. I also took a longer timeline through 2031 to see what our economy would look like using Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) occupational projections. There are 22 major occupational groups tracked by the BLS and the charts below show the changes in the top 12 major groups that account for 85 percent of jobs locally. There are several things of interest. First, the top 12 major