
Simon Says: Augusta’s hospitality industry reaches a milestone
A major Augusta milestone was achieved with May’s employment data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Leisure and hospitality employment surpassed the pre-pandemic peak. There were 29,600 people employed in the leisure and hospitality sector in May. The previous peak was 28,000 in May 2019. The sector lost 11,000 jobs in the depths of the stay-at-home orders in spring 2020. Moreover, the leisure and hospitality industry now employs more workers than retail, a position it lost during the pandemic. The retail sector lost about 1,000 jobs in May. As







