Economics

  Wawa, a convenience store/gas station chain popular in Florida is coming to Georgia and an electric vehicle manufacturer is denied a huge tax break. Enjoy the new video format of the Augusta Business Daily Business Update by Mike Petchenik.

  Dr. Rick Franza, Dean of the Hull College of Business, discusses a different, timely business topic each Monday in this column. This week, he talks about the importance of training employees. The interview has been edited for clarity and impact. ABD: The customer experience of any business that deals with the public, especially restaurants and retail stores, often depends on their interaction with the employees. How important is it to provide good training for your employees? Rick: It’s critically important, but it’s part of a bigger picture. Make training

In his role as President of the Augusta Economic Development Authority, one of Cal Wray’s responsibilities is to bring new businesses to Augusta. For the second year in a row, his efforts have been recognized. Wray has been named one of North America’s Top 50 Economic Developers for 2022 by Consultant Connect, a national firm that helps to connect site selection consultants with economic developers. He was also selected in 2015. Honorees are chosen by their peers and site selectors. “To me, it’s always exciting because those you work with

The Augusta Leading Economic Index (LEI) fell 0.2 percent in July from June, the first monthly decrease since November 2020. It remains 5.3 percent higher than in July 2021, though the rate of increase has halved from November 2021. Adverse movements were seen in initial claims for unemployment insurance and real deposits in local banks. The positive movement was seen in residential permits and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (at the end of July). Job openings were essentially unchanged. Because job openings are the last bit of data used in

  Georgia is once again named the best place for business and Georgia Power wants to hike its rates. Enjoy the new video format of the Augusta Business Daily Business Update by Mike Petchenik.  

Dr. Rick Franza, Dean of the Hull College of Business, discusses a different, timely business topic each Monday in this column. This week, he talks about what to believe about gloom and doom economic predictions. The interview has been edited for clarity and impact. ABD: Lately a lot of gloom and doom economic predictions have been circulating. What can we or should we believe about them? Rick: I’ve seen guys predicting gloom and doom for the last five years. Eventually, they’ll get it right. Even the guys who predicted the

I often report economic data for the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area because the federal government releases this data in a timelier manner than for each individual county. It also makes sense to consider the metro area, as it is defined, in part, by commuting patterns between the constituent counties. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has just released the county-level data for the first quarter of 2022. I know this is not particularly timely or useful for business planning, but it is useful to think about the heterogeneity of our metro