Employment

Over the first six months of the year, ten Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) in Georgia saw improving labor market conditions and four declining conditions as measured by the Labor Market Index (LMI). By contrast, the best-performing labor markets were Dalton, Columbus, and Rome. The worst-performing metro area was Warner Robins. The Augusta MSA grew by 0.2 percent, slightly below the state average of 0.5 percent. In Augusta, employment fell slightly, and unemployment increased between December 2022 and June 2023. However, the labor force and average weekly earnings increased. Hours worked

Where have all the workers gone is still a question I hear. Restaurants are closed some days because they cannot get the staff. Dry cleaners refuse to accept clothes after 5 pm for the same reason. In the Augusta MSA, there are 263,000 people in the labor force, down from 270,000 pre-pandemic (see below). Nationally, about 2.6 million workers are in the workforce compared to pre-pandemic. Although the labor force level by demographic is not available for the local area, national data suggests who has returned to work and who