Last week I described the weak labor market in Augusta over the last year. The Labor Market Index, a composite index of five labor market indicators (employment, unemployment rate, average weekly earnings, labor force, and hours worked), increased just 1.4% over the last year. Compared to other Metropolitan Statistical Areas in Georgia only Columbus and Hinesville have performed worse. The most robust labor market can be found in Savannah, increasing 5.6% over the last year (see photo above). Strong growth was also seen in Atlanta, Brunswick, Dalton, and Gainesville, all growing at over 3%. A deeper dive into the LMI indexes for each of these cities provides some more detail on their strong growth.
Savannah has added over 13,000 jobs in the last year, an increase of almost 7.5%, and unemployment has fallen by four percentage points. In Augusta employment growth was less than one percent and the unemployment rate fell 2.3 percentage points. Employment growth in Savannah is seen across a range of industries including leisure and hospitality, manufacturing and professional and business services.
Atlanta saw a 4.1% increase in the workforce while the workforce in Augusta grew by one percent. Average weekly earnings in Gainesville increased $108 or 9.6% while in Dalton average weekly earnings increased by over 10%; average weekly earnings fell in Augusta. Gainesville, Brunswick, and Dalton all saw workers working at least an extra 1 ½ hours per week in the last year.